Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common problem in general practice settings, yet previous research does not take into account those who do not attend hospital after injury. This is important as there is evidence that effects may be far from mild.
To determine whether people sustain any persistent effects 1 year after mTBI, and to identify the predictors of health outcomes.
A community-based, longitudinal population study of an mTBI incidence cohort (n = 341) from a mixed urban and rural region (Hamilton and Waikato Districts) of the North Island of New Zealand (NZ).
Adults (>16 years) completed assessments of cognitive functioning, global functioning, post-concussion symptoms, mood, and quality of life over the year after injury.
Nearly half of participants (47.9%) reported experiencing four or more post-concussion symptoms 1 year post-injury. Additionally, 10.9% of participants revealed very low cognitive functioning. Levels of anxiety, depression, or reduced quality of life were comparable with the general population. Having at least one comorbidity, history of brain injury, living alone, non-white ethnic group, alcohol and medication use, and being female were significant predictors of poorer outcomes at 12 months.
Although some people make a spontaneous recovery after mTBI, nearly half continue to experience persistent symptoms linked to their injury. Monitoring of recovery from mTBI may be needed and interventions provided for those experiencing persistent difficulties. Demographic factors and medical history should be taken into account in treatment planning.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 40. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 December 2025.
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#1,306,785
of 34,559,526 outputs
Outputs from British Journal of General Practice
#529
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#17,374
of 447,060 outputs
Outputs of similar age from British Journal of General Practice
#9
of 80 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,559,526 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,831 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 80 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its contemporaries.
