H - 32 Elevated Neurobehavioral Symptoms Detected in Greater Lifetime Subconcussive Exposure Frequency in Spanish-Speakers.

Abstract

To examine whether individuals who have had one exposure to lifetime subconcussive impacts differ from those who have had multiple subconcussive exposures or those who have never had any injury to the head or neck in their report of neurobehavioral symptoms. 458 adults from the continental U.S., Spain, and Latin America participated in an online survey that included the Ohio State University Traumatic Brain Injury Identification Method Self- Administered-Brief (OSU TBI-ID SAB), which assesses lifetime exposure to Traumatic Brain Injury, and the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI), a measure of symptoms commonly observed after head injury. Questions from the OSU TBI-ID SAB allow for categorization of a No Exposure group, and Single and Multiple Subconcussive Exposure groups. General linear models were fitted with NSI scores as the dependent variable and the exposure groups as the independent variable. Sex, current age, and other central nervous system compromise were covariates. A significant Group difference with small effect size was found F(2,452) = 9.3, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.40. The Multiple Exposure group scored significantly higher on the NSI versus the Single Exposure (p = 0.004) and No Exposure (p < 0.001) groups. The Single Exposure group did not differ significantly from the No Exposure group (p = 0.084). The Spanish OSU TBI-ID SAB is sensitive to differentiating cumulative subconcussive exposures from those with only one subconcussive exposure and those with none. These data support the feasibility of deriving a subconcussive exposure index from the OSU TBI-ID SAB, and also provide preliminary justification for inclusion of a neurobehavioral symptom measure in subconcussive research and clinical practice.