Preinjury Migraine History as a Risk Factor for Prolonged Return to School and Sports following Concussion

Having a preexisting migraine disorder might be a risk factor for a prolonged recovery following a sport-related concussion. We examined whether having a migraine history was associated with a prolonged return to academics and athletics following a concussion. High school and collegiate athletes ( n = 1265; 42% female) who sustained a sport-related concussion were monitored by athletic trainers using a web-based surveillance system that collects information about concussion recovery. Nonparametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests (KS) were used to compare days to return to academics/athletics across groups due to non–normally distributed outcome variables and unequal distributions of scores between groups. Chi-squared tests were used to examine the proportion of players who had not returned to academics/athletics at 7, 14, and 21 days post-injury stratified by self-reported migraine history. There were 117 athletes (9.2%) who reported a preinjury migraine history. Athletes with a history of migraine took a median of 6 days to return to academics (mean M = 10.6, standard deviation SD = 14.2) and 15.5 days to return to athletics (M = 23.8, SD = 30.8), while those with no migraine history took a median of 5 days to return to academics (M = 7.5, SD = 10.9) and 14 days to return to athletics (M = 19.4, SD = 19.4). There were no statistically significant differences in days to return to school or athletics between the groups (KS p > 0.05). However, a lower percentage of athletes with a history of migraine had returned to school after 7 days (57% vs. 68%, χ 2 = 5.53, p = 0.02), 14 days (75% vs. 88%, χ 2 = 14.21, p < 0.001), and 21 days post-injury (89% vs. 94%, χ 2 = 4.90, p = 0.03). Stratifying the analyses by sex showed that this effect was significant in girls and women with preexisting migraines, but not boys and men with preexisting migraines. There were no group differences in recovery rates when examining return to athletics. Athletes with a preinjury migraine history may be at an elevated risk for a protracted return to school after concussion, especially girls and women.