Sports-related concussions earlier in the season may have a quicker resolution of symptoms

By Josh Wu. This article was initially published in our Concussion Update newsletter; please consider subscribing.

A retrospective cohort study by Jacob Jo et al. investigated the recovery time of 273 high-school football athletes who suffered from sport-related concussions (SRC) during different parts of the season. The study, published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, included participants aged 14 to 19 who sustained SRCs between November 2017 and April 2022. The intervention involved categorizing athletes into three groups based on the seasonality of their injuries: early, middle, and late season. Primary outcome measures included time to return-to-learn (RTL), time to return-to-play (RTP), time to symptom resolution, and the initial Post-Concussion Symptom Scale score. 

The research revealed that sport-related concussions occurring during the early third of the season exhibited a quicker resolution of symptoms than those occurring in the later third of the season, although this finding did not remain statistically significant in a multivariate analysis. Further, the study did not identify any significant association between the timing of injuries and the time required for return-to-learn and return-to-play. In terms of the overall findings, the timing of the injury during the season didn't appear to be a strong predictor of the recovery process. Nevertheless, the authors observed a trend suggesting that recoveries might be somewhat slower for concussions happening later in the season.