Young people may take more time than the adults to recover from concussion, a new study shows. The study published on Jan. 6 in Pediatrics also shows whatever they do during the duration of recovery are of more importance.
According to the research those who get indulged in cognitive activities like playing video games and doing home work after a concussion had longer recovery time than young people who aren’t involved in any of these types of activities.
“These findings support current recommendations for limiting extensive cognitive activity after injury,” wrote the study’s authors, led by Dr. Naomi Brown, a sports medicine researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The study included 335 children and young adults between the ages of around 8 and 23 who visited the Sports Concussion Clinic at Boston Children’s hospital for a concussion. They were under research until they recovered, and were provided with questionnaires every time they visited the clinic. In the questions provided, they were asked to measure the level of their activities.
The level of the activities was based on the amount of activity done. For e.g. whether they were indulged in “complete cognitive rest” i.e. they totally restricted doing any thinking required activity or in “minimal cognitive activity” i.e. they spent less than 20 minutes in a day on online activity and video games, sans reading and homework. The moderate cognitive activity involves reading around 10 pages per day and 1 hour for homework, online activity and video games and significant cognitive activity includes reading less and doing less homework than general and the last was full cognitive activity.
According to the research it took 100 recovery days to the young people who were more engaged in cognitive activity, while lower three groups’ kids took between 20 and 50 days. The lower three groups had similar lengths of symptoms so the eradication of whole cognitive activity might not be essential.
“Activities that require concentration and attention may exacerbate the symptoms and as a result delay recovery,” wrote the researchers. “Given our findings, it is likely that academic accommodations can speed the recovery process.”
