Researchers reviewed the medical charts of 128 students who suffered a concussion during the 2014-2015 academic year. Their average age was 20. Overall, the students took much longer to recover from a concussion than the national average of 7 to 14 days and there were significant differences between the groups. Average recovery times were 11.5 days for varsity athletes and nearly 19 days for club athletes. Recreational athletes took nearly 23 days to recover from a concussion. These differences could be due to the amount of medical support the different groups received—varsity athletes tend to receive more care, the researchers said.
The study also found that females took longer to recover than males (nearly 21 days vs. nearly 15 days). And students with seizure disorders or prior concussions were more likely to take more than 28 days to recover. Graduate students took much longer to recover than undergraduates—31 days vs. 16 days. The findings “highlight the difficulty in treating collegiate students with concussions, due to both the academic rigors of institutions and the differing needs of student populations,” he said.
Read more at: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-02-college-students-longer-recover-concussion.html