1. Differences in pre-season balance among student athletes based on level of contact, age, and sex.
- Author
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Palazzolo JM, Goble DJ, Labban JD, Ross SE, Duffy DM, and Rhea CK
- Subjects
- Humans, Male, Female, Adolescent, Young Adult, Age Factors, Sex Factors, Brain Concussion physiopathology, Students, Postural Balance physiology, Athletic Injuries physiopathology, Athletes
- Abstract
Background: Assessing postural control is important for the assessment of motor function after concussion. Data used for postural control assessment typically do not take the sport played, age, or sex of the athlete into consideration. It is plausible these variables may be significant when making return-to-play decisions., Research Question: This study used the BTrackS database to examine differences in postural control in athletes playing different types of sports and across sex and age., Methods: BTrackS data from 9093 high school to college-aged athletes (aged 14-22 years) were examined employing a One-way ANOVA with a post-hoc test to compare CoP path length between sport types. A moderation analysis was used to test interaction effects of sex and age on a CoP/BMI ratio., Results: Significant differences were observed between sport types, F(3,9089) = 42.4, p <.001, η2 = 0.014. Post hoc tests indicated that collision (M = 25.0, SD = 7.6) sport athletes exhibited significantly higher CoP measures compared to the contact (M = 23.4, SD = 7.4), limited contact (M = 22.9, SD = 6.9), and non-contact (M = 23.0, SD = 7.4) athletes. There was no difference between other sport types (p >.20). A significant mean sex difference (Mmale = 0.924, Mfemale = 0.898, p <.001) and a quadratic association with age, (β = -0.042, p <.001) was observed. Further, magnitude of those age differences decreased with age (β = 0.011, p <.001). An interaction of age and sex was significant for linear (β = 0.020, p <.001) and quadratic terms (β = -0.006, p <.001)., Significance: Athletes exhibited different postural control when the type of sport, age, and sex was taken into consideration. This data possess clinical significance as this suggests that normative postural control data for collision sport athletes should be derived from data based upon type of sport played, age, and sex of the athlete., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Daniel J. Goble reports financial support was provided by Balance Tracking Systems, Inc. Daniel J. Goble reports a relationship with Balance Tracking Systems, Inc. that includes: equity or stocks. Daniel J. Goble has patent #10,660,558,2020 issued to Daniel J. Goble. DJG is eligible for royalties from a patent (US Patent 10,660,558,2020) related to the technology used in this study. In addition, he has an equity stake (stock options) in Balance Tracking Systems, Inc. This financial conflict of interest is mitigated by a management plan put in place by his academic institution to ensure the integrity of his research.The other authors of this manuscript report no conflicts of interest in this work. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper, (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
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