title: How severe should symptoms be before someone is said to be suffering from post-concussion syndrome? An exploratory study with self-reported checklist using Rasch analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to examine the diagnosis of post-concussive symptoms among a group of people with subjective post-concussive symptoms (PCS) complaints using a self-reported checklist.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional design was adopted with a total of 92 patients with PCS and 123 normal controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Rivermead Post-concussion Symptoms Questionnaire was administered to all participants. Analysis using the Rasch Model was undertaken.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The common matrix of symptom profiles indicated significant effects of gender (p < 0.005) and litigation (p < 0.0004). The patient group reported significantly higher symptoms than the healthy group (p < 0.0001) with differential symptom endorsement along the logits unit continuum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The application of Rasch model analysis successfully set up a common matrix to discriminate patients with post-concussive symptoms from healthy people along the logits unit continuum.
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China. edschchq@zsu.edu.cn
authors.forename: R C K
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D038223:Post-Concussion Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires