Concussion History and Emotional and Behavioral Dyscontrol Domains of Health-Related Quality of Life in College Students.

CONTEXT: Injury or illness can impact an individual's perception of their health status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Concussion is an injury that can result in several different symptoms, impairments, and functional limitations that have been found to lower HRQOL. Furthermore, concussion has been found to impact emotional and behavioral dyscontrol domains of HRQOL in pediatric populations; however, this has yet to be explored in other populations.

OBJECTIVE: To compare individuals with and without a concussion history and (1) HRQOL and (2) the emotional and behavioral dyscontrol domains of HRQOL in college students.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

SETTING: University laboratory setting.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 252 participants (155 women; age=19.95 years; SD=1.53 years) were included, 76 (30.2%) with concussion history and 176 (69.8%) without concussion history. For participants with concussion history, mean time since injury was 5.29 years (SD=2.77 years).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient Reported Outcome Measures Information System v1.1-Global Health (PROMIS) and Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders Emotional and Behavioral Dyscontrol Short Form (Neuro-QOL).

RESULTS: Mann-Whitney U tests found no differences between median scores in individuals with a history of concussion and individuals without a history of concussion on PROMIS Physical Health (13.0 vs. 14.0; p=0.24), PROMIS Mental Health (12.0 vs. 12.0; p=0.99), or Neuro-QOL (16.0 vs. 16.0; p=0.47) scores. Additionally, logistic regression analyses found that the association of history of concussion with PROMIS PH scores (OR= 1.04; 95% CI: 0.43-2.52), PROMIS MH scores (OR=0.66; 95% CI: 0.13-3.25), or Neuro-QOL scores (OR=1.16; 95% CI: 0.66-2.04) when controlling for gender was not significant.

CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary findings suggest that emotional and behavioral dyscontrol domains are not influenced by prior concussion history of greater than one year in college-aged participants. Future research should continue to explore specific HRQOL domains impacted by concussion, as well as the influence of prior mental health conditions or behavioral dysfunction following a subsequent injury.