Baseline Properties of the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 3 (SCAT3) in Iranian Professional League Football Players

Abstract

Background: SCAT3 is a standardized tool, which can evaluate injured athletes for concussion and provide us with the necessary baseline data. Like any other sport, playing football (soccer) carries a high risk of injury. Thus, this study investigated the baseline properties of SCAT3 in Iranian Professional League football players and evaluated the correlation between different factors and a history of concussion. Methods: All of the players of 16 different teams who would be participating in the 2016 - 2017 Iranian Professional League (n = 368), were enrolled in this study. Completing SCAT3 was part of the pre-competition Medical assessment. Beside presenting the descriptive data, different variables were analyzed to evaluate the association with a “prior history of concussion”, in order to find probable risk factors for head injuries. Results: Forty-one players have had a history of concussion in the previous year and data analysis among the different categories showed that having a history of concussion bore a significant correlation with number of symptoms and symptom severity (P values: 0.023 and 0.041, respectively). Conclusions: Athletes with a history of concussion reported an increased number of symptoms and a higher severity score, but other SCAT3 properties such as total SAC scores and M-BESS were not affected by a history of concussion. This study aids clinicians in evaluating athletes suffering injuries to the head during football matches.