Browsing by Author "Pajunen, Sara"

Objectives. Literature is sparse regarding the prevalence of observable concussion signs and their association with recovery of young athletes. For a long time loss of consciousness was thought to be an indicator of a more severe injury, but lately the association between amnesia and recovery is considered to be stronger. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of observable concussion signs (loss of consciousness, amnesia, disorientation, balance problems, vacant stare, facial injury) and their association with cognitive performance (verbal memory, visual memory, reaction time, visuomotor speed) and subjective symptoms seven days after injury in junior ice hockey players. Methods. The sample (n = 58) for this thesis was collected as a part of the Pää Pelissä -study and consisted of junior ice hockey players that suffered a concussion during game season 2015–2016 or 2016–2017. Subjects were Finnish males between ages 14 to 20 years (M = 16.88, SD = 1.61). Players participated in a baseline assessment before the season and a post concussion assessment seven days after injury. Medical personnel from the teams of each subject reported concussion signs based on SCAT3’s sideline assessment. ImPACT test battery was used to assess cognitive performance and subjective symptoms. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyse the association with observable concussion signs and cognitive performance and the association between observable signs and subjective symptoms was analysed using a logistic regression analysis. Results and conclusions. Disorientation was reported in 70 %, balance problems in 49 %, blank/vacant stare in 40 %, amnesia in 26 %, loss of consciousness in 21 % and facial injury in 17 % of the players. At least one sign was observed with 93 % of the concussions, most often one (28 %) or two (28 %) signs were observed. Loss of consciousness predicted worse verbal memory performance on post concussion assessment and explained 16 % of the performance. Amnesia showed similar association and explained 12 % of verbal memory performance but the model didn’t quite reach statistical significance (p = .07). There was no association with concussion sings and subjective symptoms on post concussion assessment. Based on the results special attention should be focused on the recovery follow up of the concussions with loss of consciousness or amnesia.