Abstract
Objective:
To establish a collaborative, multi-institutional partnership amongst academic centers with expertise in youth concussion care, research, and education.
To develop a universal, prospective clinical research database aligning with the NIH Common Data Elements (CDE) for pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Background: A recent Institute of Medicine report revealed a striking lack of data on youth concussion. Many academic institutions are currently working in parallel, rather than combining resources and engaging collaboratively to enhance our knowledge base.
Design/Methods: The 4CYC is a group of academic centers committed to working collaboratively to better understand youth sports and brain health. Six sites provided baseline and clinical data, collected October 2014–September 2015. Inclusion criteria: pediatric patients and athletes (ages 5–18.99 years) seen in outpatient treatment or preseason baselines. The data followed the NIH CDE for pediatric TBI for subject characteristics/demographics, clinical ratings, methods of assessment, neuropsychological data, and outcomes.
Results: We collected data from 687 baseline testing encounters, 72% of which are male. There are 2803 new clinic encounters for concussion and 1672 follow-up visits. In general, males made up 55% of new acute (<4wk) visits, while females were predominant in new chronic visits (58%) and follow-up visits (56%). The types of encounters varied among the sites, with 3 sites capturing significant numbers of baselines. There were also distinctions between sites, with acute encounters making up from 50–100% of new patients depending upon the center.
Conclusions: It is feasible for multiple academic concussion centers to combine clinic data on youth mTBI. There is a broad range of youth mTBI data at different sites, ranging from pre-season baseline examinations to early and chronic post-concussion encounters. To obtain a comprehensive view of youth concussions/mTBI, it is beneficial to combine data collection capacity across the time course of injury and recovery.
Study Supported by: UCLA BIRC, UCLA Steve Tisch Brain SPORT Program, Today’s and Tomorrow’s Children Fund, Ken and Christy Fearn, Stan and Patti Silver, UCLA Easton Labs for Neurotrauma, The Brain and Behavior Foundation NARSAD Young Investigator’s Grant, NIH Loan Repayment Program Fellowship, Wake Forest School of Medicine Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma
Disclosure: Dr. Choe has nothing to disclose. Dr. Rosenbaum has nothing to disclose. Dr. Meyer has nothing to disclose. Dr. Johnson has nothing to disclose. Dr. Arbogast has nothing to disclose. Dr. Browd has nothing to disclose. Dr. Gioia has nothing to disclose. Dr. Guskiewicz has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kessler has nothing to disclose. Dr. Maldjian has nothing to disclose. Dr. Master has nothing to disclose. Dr. Miles has nothing to disclose. Dr. Popoli has nothing to disclose. Dr. Register-Mihalik has received personal compensation for activities with Allied Health Education. Dr. Register-Mihalik hhas received royalty payments from Allied Health Education. Dr. Regiser-Mihalik has received research support from SciMetrika. Dr. Rivara has nothing to disclose. Dr. Sady has nothing to disclose. Dr. Stitzel has nothing to disclose. Dr. Whitlow has nothing to disclose. Dr. Giza has received personal compensations for activities with the Medical Education Speakers Bureau as a medicolegal consultant. He has consulted for and received personal compensations for activities with the Advisory Panels for Major League Soccer, the US Soccer Federation, and the NCAA. Dr. Giza has received personal compensations for activities with the NFL-NCP, NHLPA and MLS as a medical consultant. Dr. Consortium has nothing to disclose.
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