Kerr ZY. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31823240f2
Self-reported concussion history was moderately reliable in former professional football players, according to a study by researchers in Ohio.
In 2001, the researchers administered a questionnaire to a cohort of former professional football players to assess the number of self-reported concussions these athletes sustained during their professional careers. They then re-administered the same questionnaire in 2010 to an 899-player subset of the original cohort, for reliability assessment.
Overall reliability, the researchers noted in their abstract, was moderate, with the majority of players (62.1%) reporting the same number of concussions at both time points and 31.4% reporting more concussions with the second questionnaire.
When investigators compared those patients who reported more concussions to those who reported the same number they found those who reported more concussions had a larger number of deficits in the second administration of the SF-36 physical and mental health scales.
“The self-reported concussion history had moderate reliability in former professional football players on the basis of two administrations of the same instrument, 9 years apart,” the authors of the study wrote. “However, changes in health status may be differentially associated with recall of concussions.”