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Table 1 PICO-model and medline search strategy in accordance with PRISMA statement

From: An assessment of current concussion identification and diagnosis methods in sports settings: a systematic review

Primary review question/aim

What are the current side-line screening methods used to establish the diagnosis of acute concussion or suspected concussion across sports in an adult population?

Inclusion criteria

Population

Athletes aged 18 years or greater, involved in amateur, semi-professional or professional sport and sustaining a suspected concussive injury. For the purpose of this review, we allowed for the inclusion of athletes younger than 18 years (e.g., studies with an age range of 5–23 years). These studies were considered important as the cohort included were over 18 years of age

Intervention

Any side-line* screening assessment used to detect suspected concussion following sports-related head impact event in the acute phase of injury. For this review the acute phase of injury will be defined as minutes after the event up to and including 7 days post event. These will include (but may not be limited to) reported (i). Concussion 2, (ii) mTBI, (iii) Cervical neck injury

Outcomes

Acute concussion diagnosis methods

Study design

Published research, retrospective data analysis, cross sectional study design, parallel studies, prospective, observational, systematic reviews where data meeting the PICO can be extracted. Abstracts (with data) will be included initially. Research published from 2015 onwards

Exclusion criteria

Population

Not related to sport, animal studies or studies in which all participants were under 18 years of age

Intervention

Non-side-line testing, testing conducted > 7 days post event

Outcomes

Concussion/suspected concussion not examined side-line or diagnosis assessment requiring advanced medical training/technology or referral to secondary care for diagnosis to be made

Study design

Case reports, editorials, commentary’s, review articles (in the case of systematic reviews if relevant data cannot be extracted or does not meet PICO), consensus statements, position stands and non-English publications. Research published in 2014 and prior

Search terms

 

((sport related concussion OR SRC OR mTBI OR mild traumatic brain injury) AND (diagnosis OR treatment)) AND (sport)

  1. *‘Side-line’ is used generally to denote testing away from the immediate sporting environment, for example rink side, track-side, locker room, medical room, touch line and so on. MeSH terms were exploded to include more specific terms; MeSH terms were translated into the appropriate subject headings for other databases. Keywords were the same for each database searched