Analysis of past concussions and current health measures: Long term impacts of concussion on cognitive, emotion and general health scores in a cohort of adults 40-65

Not only is there a higher prevalence of concussion in junior, amateur and professional sport, but societal knowledge about concussion is greater than ever before. Current concussion research looks to prevent, manage and treat concussions. Little research has been done on the long-term impacts of previous concussions on adults relative to quality of life, cognitive decline, current health status or psychological well-being. Based on previous research on impacts of concussion it is anticipated that there will be a relationship between older adults with a history of concussion and scores on measures of cognitive functioning. As such the purpose of the present study was to predict cognitive failures using The Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ) in a sample of individuals drawn from the general population to determine the influence of concussion history, self-reports of measures of perceived health and quality of life and sex. Data were collected using a web-based survey in the general population of individuals, aged 40-65 years. Five surveys were presented to the general population with varying response rates that ranged from 108 to 130 respondents, respective of each survey. The results indicated that scores on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire were predicted differently by reporting characteristics on the Short Form Health Survey 36 (RAND SF 36) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) for individuals that reported history of previously diagnosed concussion. The results indicated that scores on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire were predicted differently by reporting characteristics on the RAND SF 36 and the PHQ for individuals that reported history of previously diagnosed concussion. These results are intriguing in that they suggest that while not necessarily causal, there appears to be a relationship between concussion history and reporting on quality of life and perceived health surveys.