Postconcussive Symptoms Following Mild TBI and Extracranial Injury: What Are the Contributing Factors?

OBJECTIVES

Whether mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) sustained by children results in persistent or recurrent symptoms, over and above those experienced by children who solely sustain mild extracranial injuries, remains debated. The current prospective longitudinal case-controlled study aimed to examine the relative influence of injury and noninjury factors on symptoms in preschool and primary school-aged children who sustained an mTBI or mild extracranial injury at least 8 month earlier.

METHODS

Participants were 64 parents of children (31 mTBI, 33 trauma controls) who sustained injury between ages 2 and 12, whose postconcussive symptoms across the first 3-month postinjury have been previously described. The current study assessed postconcussive symptoms at 8 or more months postinjury (M = 24.3, SD = 8.4) and examined a range of injury and noninjury predictive factors.

RESULTS

At or beyond 8-month postinjury, symptom numbers in the mTBI group were comparable with those of the group who sustained mild extracranial injury. Educational attainment of parents (below or above high-school attainment level) was the only predictor of symptoms at follow-up, with preexisting learning difficulties approaching significance as a predictor.

CONCLUSIONS

While our earlier study found that mTBI was associated with symptoms at 3-month postinjury, follow-up at more than 8 months showed mTBI no longer predicted symptom reporting. While mTBI contributes significantly to the presence of symptoms in the first few months postinjury, researchers and healthcare practitioners in this field need to consider the potential impact of noninjury factors on persistent or recurrent symptoms after mTBI.