Does interprofessional concussion management improve recovery in varsity athletes? A year to year effectiveness-implementation hybrid study.

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Year: 2021

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Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of an integrated interprofessional management (IPM) concussion care approach in varsity athletes.

Setting: The study was completed in a university environment with varsity athletes.

Design: Data analysis was quantitative, as compared between seasons, in this observational cohort study.

Main outcome measures: The metrics for the effectiveness of the IPM team were: time spent in treatment and post-concussion symptom severity scores. These measures were compared for each season year and both sexes for the primary concussive domain they were initially diagnosed with.

Participants: University varsity athletes from various in-season teams.

Results: A Kruskal-Wallis revealed that 2017/18 athletes spent a significantly shorter amount of time in treatment between the two seasons, median 29 days in the 2016/17 season year (IQR = 29) versus 13 days in the 2017/18 season year (IQR = 11), for both sexes (p = 0.009). It appears women tended to recover more quickly than men, particularly in the 2016/2017 season first year.

Conclusions: A highly communicative interprofessional management (IPM) strategy was shown to lead to reduced return to play (RTP) and return to learn (RTL) times. Increased experience as an IPM team may be a factor contributing to the effectiveness in IPM strategies as well as overall concussion treatment.

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