Gender differences in concussion-related knowledge, attitudes and reporting behaviors of varsity athletes.

BACKGROUND: Concussion is a pathophysiological process that occurs due to a traumatic biomechanical force. Concussions are an "invisible" and common traumatic brain injury with symptoms that may be underestimated. This necessitates fundamental improvements in public knowledge specifically addressing young university athletes and different genders. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the possibility of gender differences with respect to university student athletes' concussion knowledge, attitude and reporting behaviors. We hypothesized that there should be no significant difference in concussion knowledge among male and female student athletes; however, females would show a more positive attitude and more reporting behaviors than male student athletes. METHODS: Overall, 115 university athlete students completed a survey questionnaire; we eliminated some participants based on required inclusion criteria of Rosenbaum Concussion Knowledge and Attitude Survey-student version (RoCKAS-ST). Our final analysis consisted of 96 participants: 20 males (mean age 21.15 years) and 75 females (mean age 22.36 years). This study included questions about the athletes' given reasons for reporting or not reporting a concussion. Additionally, 33 RoCKAS-ST questions on Concussion Knowledge Index (CKI) with fair test-retest reliability (r=0.67) and 15 items on Concussion Attitude Index (CAI) with satisfactory test-retest reliability (r=0.79) were provided. RESULTS: Males reported more sources for learning about concussions and more sport-related reasons for reporting a concussion than females (P<0.05). Both genders provided equal numbers of reasons for neglecting a concussion report or not disclosing a concussion for the sake of others (i.e., family, teammates or the coach). Out of 16 given reasons for not reporting a concussion, males significantly chose sport-related reasons over female athletes (P<0.05). Additionally, by looking at the two components of RoCKAS-ST, the independent t-test results showed no significant gender-based differences in concussion knowledge and attitude indices (P>0.05). Nevertheless, females were less optimistic about evaluating other athletes' attitude over concussion reporting (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated that concussion knowledge is not gender biased among Canadian university athletes; however, more investigation is required to learn how safe environments for concussion disclosure could encourage reporting the symptoms in varsity athletes, especially in males who are more susceptible to not reporting a concussion to not miss their sport-related goals.

Stress and headaches in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With regards to the relationship between mental and physical health conditions, some studies predict increased headache frequency as a result of exposure to stressful situations. Thus, the purpose of our study was to investigate whether headache characteristics among a sample of university students (N = 234) correlated with fear of COVID-19, stress and quality of life vis-à-vis the pandemic. We found statistically significant positive correlations between headache frequency and both general stress and quality of life. Further, results from a multiple regression analysis suggested that fear of COVID-19 did not account for incremental variance in headache intensity. Explanations for our key findings, limitations of our study, and future directions for post pandemic studies on headache experience are outlined.

ERP evidence of heightened attentional response to visual stimuli in migraine headache disorders.

New findings from migraine studies have indicated that this common headache disorder is associated with anomalies in attentional processing. In tandem with the previous explorations, this study will provide evidence to show that visual attention is impacted by migraine headache disorders. 43 individuals were initially recruited in the migraine group and 33 people with non-migraine headache disorders were in the control group. The event-related potentials (ERP) of the participants were calculated using data from a visual oddball paradigm task. By analyzing the N200 and P300 ERP components, migraineurs, as compared to controls, had an exaggerated oddball response showing increased amplitude in N200 and P300 difference scores for the oddball vs. standard, while the latencies of the two components remained the same in the migraine and control groups. We then looked at two classifications of migraine with and without aura compared to non-migraine controls. One-Way ANOVA analysis of the two migraine groups and the non-migraine control group showed that the different level of N200 and P300 amplitude mean scores was greater between migraineurs without aura and the control group while these components' latency remained the same relatively in the three groups. Our results give more neurophysiological support that people with migraine headaches have altered processing of visual attention.