Sex Differences on the Concussion Clinical Profiles Screening in Adolescents With Sport-Related Concussion

Context: Sex differences influence symptom presentations after sport-related concussion and may be a risk factor for certain concussion clinical profiles.Objective: To examine sex differences on the Concussion Clinical Profile Screen (CP Screen) in adolescents after sport -related concussion.Design: Cross-sectional study.Setting: A concussion specialty clinic.Patients or Other Participants: A total of 276 adolescent (age = 15.02 6 1.43 years; girls = 152 [55%]) athletes with a recently diagnosed concussion (<= 30 days).Main Outcome Measure(s): The 5 CP Screen profiles (anxiety mood, cognitive fatigue, migraine, vestibular, ocular) and 2 modifiers (neck, sleep), symptom total, and symptom severity scores were compared using a series of Mann-Whitney U tests between boys and girls.Results: Girls (n = 152) scored higher than boys (n = 124) on the cognitive fatigue (U = 7160.50, z =-3.46, P = .001) and anxiety mood (U = 7059, z =-3.62, P < .001) factors but not on the migraine (U = 7768, z =-2.52, P = .01) factor. Girls also endorsed a greater number of symptoms (n = 124; U = 27233, z =-3.33, P = .001) and scored higher in symptom severity (U = 7049, z =-3.60, P < .001) than boys.Conclusions: Among adolescents, symptom endorse-ment on the CP Screen varied based on sex, and clinicians need to be aware of these differences, especially when evaluating postconcussion presentation in the absence of baseline data.