The objective of this study was to examine the association between sport/non-sport concussions as well as age and time to recovery after concussion diagnosis in children and adolescents.

There is an ongoing debate between policy makers and medical specialists on when is the appropriate time to allow children to begin playing contact sports. This dilemma is important because sports are incredibly prevalent in our child and adolescent population today. There is still significant debate if age at time of concussion diagnosis is associated with long term affects and time to recovery.

Of the 725 patients who received a diagnosis of concussion at Children’s of Alabama (COA) from 2018-2019, 350 patients were included for retrospective cohort review based on documented recovery data defined as follow up appointment PRN (as needed) or begin return to play protocol. 221 patients were lost to follow up while 7 were excluded for concomitant skull fracture. Recovery time, patient demographic data, symptoms severity score, and injury characteristics were then analyzed for each patient.

Overall, the mean time of recovery after new diagnosis of any concussion was 87.2 days. The mean time to documented recovery in sports-related concussion was 82.6 days compared to 98.5 days in non-sports related concussion. Of note, both the 5-12 and 13-18 age groups had the same mean time to recovery at 87 days.  

Sports related concussion showed decreased mean time to recovery compared to non-sports related concussion. Also, age did not play a factor in time to recovery as there was no difference in the two age groups. This data, along with the NCAA-DOD Care Consortium showing repetitive head injury during early adolescence is unrelated to brain health as measured by specific outcome measures, has the potential to provide valuable information for future policy on child and adolescent sports.