Abstract
Sport-related concussions (SRC) are an increasingly common concern in young athletes, with long-term cognitive, physiological, behavioral, and psychological adverse outcomes. An estimated 1.1 million to 1.9 million SRCs occur per year in children <18 years old in the United States. The post-concussive state has demonstrated consequences in several domains, including athletics and academics, although much more research has been conducted on the former. The objective of this scoping review was to ascertain findings from published studies on the effects of SRCs on academic performance and quality of life of young student athletes. A total of 175 articles were screened within the PubMed and CINAHL databases, along with a Google search. Fourteen papers fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were analyzed in the review. Quantitative and qualitative data were collated and demonstrated the heterogeneity with which, post-concussion academic performance outcomes were measured; only 4 of the 14 studies utilized formal academic metrics such as changes in grade point average (GPA) or examination scores. While the results overall did show statistically significant implications on academic performance decline after SRC, it is clear that there remains a paucity of research determining the consequences of SRCs on academic performance in the school environment. Further research is needed to better understand how to implement accommodations in the student’s learning environment and guide return-to-learn protocols for student athletes following SRC.
Highlights
Our understanding of the mechanism, and, both short-term and long-term effects of sport-related concussion (SRC) in young athletes continue to evolve [1]
A total of 178 records were identified through the PubMed and CINAHL search strings, with an additional 3 studies found through other web-based sources
Three duplicates were identified between the PubMed and CINAHL databases, creating a total of 175 records that were screened via abstract analysis
Summary
Our understanding of the mechanism, and, both short-term and long-term effects of sport-related concussion (SRC) in young athletes continue to evolve [1]. SRC seems to include injuries after sports-related, athletic, or recreational activities. A generally accepted current definition of sport-related concussion is the one from the consensus statement on concussion in sports—the 5th international conference on concussion in sport [1]: Sport-related concussion is a traumatic brain injury induced by biomechanical forces. Several common features that may be utilized in clinically defining the nature of a concussive head injury include: Int. J. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 7602; doi:10.3390/ijerph17207602 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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