Reconsidering Return-to-Play Times: A Broader Perspective on Concussion Recovery:

Background:Return-to-play protocols describe stepwise, graduated recoveries for safe return from concussion; however, studies that comprehensively track return-to-play time are expensive to administer and heavily sampled from elite male contact-sport athletes.Purpose:To retrospectively assess probable recovery time for collegiate patients to return to play after concussion, especially for understudied populations, such as women and nonelite athletes.Study Design:Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.Methods:Medical staff at a military academy logged a total of 512 concussion medical records over 38 months. Of these, 414 records included complete return-to-play protocols with return-to-play time, sex, athletic status, cause, and other data.Results:Overall mean return to play was 29.4 days. Sex and athletic status both affected return-to-play time. Men showed significantly shorter return to play than women, taking 24.7 days (SEM, 1.5 days) versus 35.5 days (SEM, 2.7 days) (P < .001). Intercollegiate athletes a...