baseline properties of the sport concussion assessment tool 3 (scat3) in iranian professional league football players

Background: scat3 is a standardized tool, which can evaluate injured athletes for concussion and provide us with the necessary baseline data. like any other sport, playing football (soccer) carries a high risk of injury. thus, this study investigated the baseline properties of scat3 in iranian professional league football players and evaluated the correlation between different factors and a history of concussion. methods: all of the players of 16 different teams who would be participating in the 2016 - 2017 iranian professional league (n = 368), were enrolled in this study. completing scat3 was part of the pre-competition medical assessment. beside presenting the descriptive data, different variables were analyzed to evaluate the association with a “prior history of concussion”, in order to find probable risk factors for head injuries. results: forty-one players have had a history of concussion in the previous year and data analysis among the different categories showedthathaving a history of concussion bore a significant correlation withnumberof symptomsandsymptomseverity (p values: 0.023 and 0.041, respectively). conclusions: athletes with a history of concussion reported an increased number of symptoms and a higher severity score, but other scat3 properties such as total sac scores and m-bess were not affected by a history of concussion. this study aids clinicians in evaluating athletes suffering injuries to the head during football matches.