Sex differences in the long-term neuropsychological outcome of mild traumatic brain injury

• Published in: Brain injury 2009-01, Vol.23 (10), p.809-814
• Main Authors: Tsushima, William T., Lum, Mark, Geling, Olga
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Brain Concussion - physiopathology; Brain Concussion - psychology; brain injury; Cognition Disorders - physiopathology; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Disability Evaluation; Female; Humans; Male; Multivariate Analysis; neuropsychological outcome; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Recovery of Function - physiology; Retrospective Studies; Sex differences; Sex Factors; Trauma Severity Indices
• ISSN: 0269-9052; 1362-301X
• DOI: 10.1080/02699050903200530

Primary objective: To investigate possible sex differences in neuropsychological functioning among patients following mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods and procedures: Retrospective records analysis of the neuropsychological test results of 102 participants with head injury, including 62 males and 40 females. Main outcome and results: A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that females and males performed similarly on neuropsychological tests, on average, ∼2 years after minor head trauma. A sex-by-age interaction effect was found on the Category and Trail Making A Tests, with a pattern similar to those obtained in a previous research. Conclusions: Although past research has found that females develop more TBI-related neuropsychological deficits than males in the immediate post-injury period, the present study found that, overall, sex differences in the performance of patients with mild TBI on a variety of neuropsychological tests were insignificant. More investigation into the sex-by-age interaction effect appears warranted.