Developing a Tool to Support Shared Decision Making Post-Concussion Between Adolescents, Parents and Clinicians

We used the 5-item Decisional Regret Scale to measure personal perceptions of regret when considering the decision previously made about sports participation post-concussion. Responses are on a 5-point Likert scale, from (1) strongly agree to (5) strongly disagree. Two positively worded items were reverse scored. Responses were averaged to create a decisional regret score with a possible range of 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating greater regret.

We used the 10-item Decisional Conflict Scale-Low Literacy version to measure parent and adolescent perceptions of certainty in making the decision to return to sports after concussion recovery. Respondents answered 10 items using a 3-point scale scored as 0 = "yes," 2 = "unsure," and 4 = "no." Item scores were summed, divided by 10, and then multiplied by 25 to produce a total decisional conflict score ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater decisional conflict and lower decision certainty.

We used a 12-item Decision Self-Efficacy Scale to measure parent and adolescent confidence in making health-related decisions. Participants responded using a 5-point scale scored from 0 = "not at all confident" to 4 = "very confident." Item scores were summed, divided by 12, and then multiplied by 25 to produce a total decision self-efficacy score ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater confidence in decision-making. The scale included an additional item: "Let my child/my parent(s) know what I think is best for them/me."

We used the 19-item Decision Making Involvement Scale to assess engagement and perceived support in the decision making process, divided into two subscales: Within Family Engagement and Family-Provider Engagement. Participants rated their agreement with items on a 4-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Subscale scores are calculated by averaging the item responses within each subscale. Each subscale score ranges from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating more engagement or involvement.

We used the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) to assess adolescent physical activity post-concussion. Participants reported the number of days and minutes spent on vigorous, moderate, and walking activities. These values were converted to MET-minutes per week (MMW) using standard MET values (vigorous = 8, moderate = 4, walking = 3.3). The total physical activity score was calculated by summing the MMW for all activities.

We used the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, Psychosocial subscale (PEDS-QL) to measure adolescent emotional functioning. Participants rated items on a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores reflecting better emotional functioning. To ensure ease of interpretation, items were reverse scored and then transformed to a 0-100 scale, where higher scores indicate better emotional health.