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Abstract
The objective was to determine the association between concussion presentations and post-concussion naturalistic driving behaviors. Thirteen individuals with concussion and nine controls installed a GPS device for nine days post-concussion. Driving behaviors included driving duration, distance, average speed, and number of trips per day and risky driving events included hard braking and sudden acceleration. Clinical concussion assessments included neurocognition, balance, vestibulo-ocular function, and symptoms. Separate generalized linear mixed models were used to identify associations between acute clinical concussion presentations and acute driving behavior in the concussion group, relative to controls. Spearman's rank correlation was used to determine the correlation between daily symptom score and naturalistic driving in the concussion group. Relative to controls, concussed individuals with more symptoms and better balance drove at higher speeds, and difficulty with vestibulo-ocular function was associated with increased driving duration. Clinicians may focus on these to help guide post-concussion driving recommendations.