Impact of Acute Exercise on Baseline Concussion Measures

Concussions present with a myriad of symptoms and deficits related to balance, cognition, and vestibular/ocular motor assessments. To increase accuracy in concussion diagnosis and management, baseline assessments are recommended to provide individualized, pre-injury assessment measures. While symptom reduction and recovery may be aided by physical activity postconcussion, further information is needed to understand the potential influence of post- exercise symptoms in healthy athletes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the effects of acute exercise on baseline measures of concussion including the SCAT5, KD, ImPACT, BESS, and VOMS. We completed a cross-sectional, laboratory study with 1 independent variable group (exercise, control). Subjects were matched on sex, age, and sport- related concussion (SRC) history and then randomly allocated into the exercise or control group prior to data collection. The dependent variables were comprised of outcome scores from the ImPACT, SCAT5, BESS, VOMS, and K-D test. A total of 93 recreationally active college students (age range = 18-24 years; physical exertion n = 47, control n = 46) were recruited to participate in this study. The exercise group engaged in a one-time, 15-minute exercise protocol before completing the SRC assessments, while the control group completed the SRC assessment protocol in a rested state. Significant differences were noticed between groups on SCAT total number of symptoms and symptom severity, as well as ImPACT symptom severity score, with the control group scoring higher in all categories. For future practice, sports medicine professionals should consider the effect exercise may have on baseline measurements of concussions, specifically symptoms. It may be beneficial to conduct baseline measurements after practice or conditioning, for a better indication of the athlete’s true baseline. Additionally, it is important that clinicians and sports medicine professionals continue to use a multimodal approach when treating concussions, as symptoms alone may not be a good indication.