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Context: Injury or illness can affect individual perceptions of health status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Concussion can result in different symptoms, impairments, and functional limitations that have been found to lower HRQOL. Furthermore, concussion is known to influence the emotional and behavioral dyscontrol domains of HRQOL in pediatric populations; however, this has yet to be explored in other populations., Objective: To compare individuals with and those without a concussion history and (1) HRQOL and (2) the emotional and behavioral dyscontrol domains of HRQOL in college students., Design: Cross-sectional study., Setting: University laboratory setting., Patients or Other Participants: Of a total of 252 participants (155 women; age = 19.95 ± 1.53 years), 76 (30.2%) had a history of concussion and 176 (69.8%) did not. For participants with a history of concussion, the mean time since injury was 5.29 ± 2.77 years., Main Outcome Measure(s): The Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Information System (PROMIS) Global Health, version 1.1, and Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders Emotional and Behavioral Dyscontrol Short Form (Neuro-QOL)., Results: No differences were seen between median scores in individuals with and those without a history of concussion in the PROMIS Physical Health (13.0 versus 14.0; P = .24), PROMIS Mental Health (12.0 versus 12.0; P = .99), and Neuro-QOL (16.0 versus 16.0; P = .47) scores. Additionally, when gender was controlled, the associations between a history of concussion and PROMIS Physical Health score (odds ratio [OR] = 1.04; 95% CI = 0.43, 2.52), PROMIS Mental Health score (OR = 0.66; 95% CI = 0.13, 3.25), and Neuro-QOL score (OR = 1.16; 95% CI = 0.66, 2.04) were not significant., Conclusions: Preliminary findings suggested that the emotional and behavioral dyscontrol domains were not influenced by a concussion history of > 1 year in college-aged participants. Future researchers should continue to explore specific HRQOL domains affected by concussion as well as the influences of prior mental health conditions and behavioral dysfunction after a subsequent injury., (© by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Inc.)

Context: Sport specialization, or focused participation in a single sport, is associated with an increased rate of overuse injury and burnout. Medical associations and sport organizations have published recommendations for sport specialization aimed at reducing its negative consequences. Health care providers (HCPs) are often identified as individuals who can educate athletes and parents about these important recommendations., Objective: To compare knowledge, perceptions, awareness, confidence in knowledge, and use of sport specialization recommendations among HCPs who work with pediatric athletes., Design: Cross-sectional study., Setting: An online web-based survey was developed to assess HCPs' knowledge, perceptions, awareness, confidence in knowledge, and clinical use of sport specialization recommendations., Patients or Other Participants: Participants were recruited from the research survey services of 4 professional organizations., Main Outcome Measure(s): Dependent variables were responses for awareness, perceptions, confidence in knowledge, use, and barriers sections of the survey. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics; comparisons among HCPs were made through χ2 and Kruskal-Wallis tests., Results: The survey was completed by 770 HCPs (completion rate = 95.1%). Respondents lacked awareness specific to recommendations surrounding the maximum number of sport participation months per year (39.5%), maximum hours per week (40.7%), and maximum number of teams on which youth athletes should participate concurrently (43.9%). Physicians were the most aware of medical organization recommendations generally (48%-68.8%) and confident in their knowledge (41.5%-75.1%). All HCPs were less aware and confident in their knowledge of sport organization recommendations, with no differences among HCPs. Physicians did not perceive many barriers to the use of the recommendations, whereas athletic trainers felt that patient (39.9%) and parent (45.3%) behaviors were the greatest barriers to usage., Conclusions: Awareness, perceptions, and use of sport specialization recommendations varied by discipline, but most respondents believed they were associated with a decreased risk of injury. Future researchers should focus on improved education and implementation of recommendations across all roles., (© by the National Athletic Trainers' Association, Inc.)

Despite a call to incorporate patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) into all aspects of health care, little is known about which instruments are best suited for a pediatric patient population with sport-related injury. The objective of this article was to perform a systematic review of the currently available evidence to determine which PROMs were used for pediatric patients with sport-related injuries and identify the associated psychometric properties and considerations for clinical utility. We conducted a literature search for articles on PROMs used in the pediatric population through electronic databases and a manual search of reference lists and authors between from inception to 2020. Articles were grouped based on the PROM(s) included, and considerations for clinical utility and psychometric properties were extracted from each article. Thirty-nine articles were included in this review, from which 22 PROMs were identified: 12 PROMs were developed specifically for the pediatric population, 4 were modified versions of an adult scale, and 6 were adult measures used in a pediatric population. Of the PROMs included in this review, the Oxford Ankle Foot Questionnaire for Children and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory were the most comprehensive in their development and assessment. Several outcome measures used for pediatric patients had missing or inadequate measurement properties and considerations for clinical utility, particularly in regard to readability, responsiveness, and interpretability. Clinicians and researchers should consider a measure's feasibility, acceptability, appropriateness, and psychometric properties when selecting a PROM for use with the pediatric population., (© by the National Athletic Trainers' Association, Inc.)

Context: Secondary schools that offer school-sponsored athletic events should follow best-practice guidelines to provide policies that promote student health and safety., Objective: To assess emergency preparedness from the perspective of athletic administrators (AAs) in Iowa secondary schools., Design: Cross-sectional study., Setting: Online survey., Patients or Other Participants: Ninety-eight AAs from Iowa completed the survey (age = 45.33 ± 10.22 years, years as an AA = 9.37 ± 8.14, years in current role = 7.72 ± 7.09)., Main Outcome Measures(s): The 6-section survey contained with questions about access to athletic trainers (ATs), emergency action plans (EAPs), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), automated external defibrillators (AEDs), concussions, heat illness, and other general policies. Descriptive statistics (percentages and frequencies) were reported. Relative risk was calculated to compare schools with and those without access to ATs (P < .05)., Results: Most respondents (76.5%, n = 75/98) reported their school had access to a licensed AT. The majority had a written EAP (83.3%, n = 70/84), but fewer than half (39.2%, n = 31/79) reviewed it annually and fewer than 10% (n = 6/85) reported practicing it each year. All respondents (100%, N = 78/78) stated they had an AED on campus. All respondents (N = 77/77) indicated that they were familiar with the Iowa High School Athletic Association's (IHSAA's) concussion policy and had a concussion guideline in place. Many respondents (95.9%, n = 71/74) described being familiar with the IHSAA's heat illness policy, but more than half (62.1%, n = 41/66) noted they did not have a heat illness policy in place at their school., Conclusions: Most respondents indicated their school had access to ATs, followed the state-mandated concussion guidelines, and had an AED. Although participants reported having written EAPs in place, levels of annual EAP review and practice were low. These results suggest that schools would benefit from educational opportunities to improve safety policies., (© by the National Athletic Trainers' Association, Inc.)

Context: Knee injuries are common during sport participation. However, little is known about the overall management and estimated direct costs of care associated with these injuries when under the care of athletic trainers., Objective: To describe the treatment characteristics and direct costs of care for athletic training services provided for patients with knee injuries., Design: Descriptive study., Setting: Ninety-five athletic training facilities across 24 states., Patients or Other Participants: A total of 117 athletic trainers (females = 56.4%, age = 29.4 ± 8.7 years, years certified = 4.7 ± 6.0, years employed at site = 1.6 ± 4.1)., Main Outcome Measure(s): Complete patient cases were identified using International Classification of Disease-10 diagnostic codes between 2009 and 2020. Summary statistics were calculated for patient demographics, treatment characteristics, and direct costs of care. Treatment characteristics included the type of athletic training service, duration, amount (eg, number of visits), and direct costs of care., Results: A total of 441 patient cases were included. The most common injuries reported were cruciate ligament sprain (18.1%, n = 80), medial collateral ligament sprain (15.4%, n = 68), and knee pain (14.1%, n = 62). Injuries occurred most frequently during football (35.4%, n = 156), basketball (14.7%, n = 65), and soccer (12.7%, n = 56). A total of 8484 athletic training services were recorded over 4254 visits, with therapeutic exercise (29.8%, n = 2530), hot or cold pack (25.8%, n = 2189), and therapeutic activities (11.2%, n = 954) being the most frequently reported services. The median duration of care was 23 days and number of visits was 8. The median total cost of care was $564 per injury and $73 per visit., Conclusions: Patients with knee injuries demonstrated greater time loss than those with other lower extremity injuries. Thus, it is unsurprising that knee injuries were associated with a longer duration and higher cost of care than other lower extremity injuries such as ankle sprains. Future researchers should examine the effectiveness of common treatment strategies and aim to identify treatments that can reduce costs and improve patient outcomes., (© by the National Athletic Trainers' Association, Inc.)

Objective: To provide athletic trainers, physicians, and other health care professionals with best-practice guidelines for the management of sport-related concussions., Background: An estimated 3.8 million concussions occur each year in the United States as a result of sport and physical activity. Athletic trainers are commonly the first medical providers available onsite to identify and evaluate these injuries., Recommendations: The recommendations for concussion management provided here are based on the most current research and divided into sections on education and prevention, documentation and legal aspects, evaluation and return to play, and other considerations.

Context: Analysis of health care service models requires the collection and evaluation of basic practice characterization data. Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) provide a framework for gathering data useful in characterizing clinical practice., Objective: To describe preliminary secondary school setting practice data from the Athletic Training Practice-Based Research Network (AT-PBRN)., Design: Descriptive study., Setting: Secondary school athletic training facilities within the AT-PBRN., Patients or Other Participants: Clinicians (n = 22) and their patients (n = 2523) from the AT-PBRN., Main Outcome Measure(s): A Web-based survey was used to obtain data on clinical practice site and clinician characteristics. Patient and practice characteristics were obtained via deidentified electronic medical record data collected between September 1, 2009, and April 1, 2011. Descriptive data regarding the clinician and CPS practice characteristics are reported as percentages and frequencies. Descriptive analysis of patient encounters and practice characteristic data was performed, with the percentages and frequencies of the type of injuries recorded at initial evaluation, type of treatment received at initial evaluation, daily treatment, and daily sign-in procedures., Results: The AT-PBRN had secondary school sites in 7 states, and most athletic trainers at those sites (78.2%) had less than 5 years of experience. The secondary school sites within the AT-PBRN documented 2523 patients treated across 3140 encounters. Patients most frequently sought care for a current injury (61.3%), followed by preventive services (24.0%), and new injuries (14.7%). The most common diagnoses were ankle sprain/strain (17.9%), hip sprain/strain (12.5%), concussion (12.0%), and knee pain (2.5%). The most frequent procedures were athletic trainer evaluation (53.9%), hot- or cold-pack application (26.0%), strapping (10.3%), and therapeutic exercise (5.7%). The median number of treatments per injury was 3 (interquartile range = 2, 4; range = 2-19)., Conclusions: These preliminary data describe services provided by clinicians within the AT-PBRN and demonstrate the usefulness of the PBRN model for obtaining such data.

Context: To improve patient care, athletic training clinicians and researchers should work together to translate research findings into clinical practice. Problems with patient care observed in clinical practice should be translated into research frameworks, where they can be studied. Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) provide a compelling model for linking clinicians and researchers so they can conduct translational research to improve patient care., Objective: To describe (1) the translational research model, (2) practice-based research as a mechanism for translating research findings into clinical practice, (3) the PBRN model and infrastructure, (4) the research potential using the PBRN model, and (5) protection of human participants in PBRN research., Description: Translational research is the process of transforming research findings into health behavior that ultimately serves the public and attempts to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. Practice-based research represents the final step in the translational research continuum and describes research conducted by providers in clinical practices. The PBRNs are characterized by an organizational framework that transcends a single site or study and serves as the clinical research "laboratory" for conducting comparative-effectiveness studies using patient-oriented measures. The PBRN approach to research has many benefits, including enhanced generalizability of results, pooling of resources, rapid patient recruitment, and collaborative opportunities. However, multisite research also brings challenges related to the protection of human participants and institutional review board oversight. CLINICAL AND RESEARCH ADVANTAGES: Athletic training studies frequently include relatively few participants and, consequently, are able to detect only large effects. The incidence of injury at a single site is sufficiently low that gathering enough data to adequately power a treatment study may take many years. Collaborative efforts across diverse clinical practice environments can yield larger patient samples to overcome the limitations inherent in single-site research efforts.

Context: Establishing psychometric and measurement properties of concussion assessments is important before these assessments are used by clinicians. To date, data have been limited regarding these issues with respect to neurocognitive and postural stability testing, especially in a younger athletic population., Objective: To determine the test-retest reliability and reliable change indices of concussion assessments in athletes participating in youth sports. A secondary objective was to determine the relationship between the Standardized Assessment of Concussion (SAC) and neuropsychological assessments in young athletes., Design: We used a repeated-measures design to evaluate the test-retest reliability of the concussion assessments in young athletes. Correlations were calculated to determine the relationship between the measures. All subjects underwent 2 test sessions 60 days apart., Setting: Sports medicine laboratory and school or home environment., Patients or Other Participants: Fifty healthy young athletes between the ages of 9 and 14 years., Main Outcome Measure(s): Scores from the SAC, Balance Error Scoring System, Buschke Selective Reminding Test, Trail Making Test B, and Coding and Symbol Search subsets of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were used in the analysis., Results: Our test-retest indices for each of the 6 scores were poor to good, ranging from r = .46 to .83. Good reliability was found for the Coding and Symbol Search tests. The reliable change scores provided a way of determining a meaningful change in score for each assessment. We found a weak relationship ( r < .36) between the SAC and each of the neuropsychological assessments; however, stronger relationships ( r > .70) were found between certain neuropsychological measures., Conclusions: We found moderate test-retest reliability on the cognitive tests that assessed attention, concentration, and visual processing and the Balance Error Scoring System. Our results demonstrated only a weak relationship between performance on the SAC and the selected neuropsychological tests, so it is likely that these tests assess somewhat different areas of cognitive function. Our correlational findings provide more evidence for using the SAC along with a more complex neuropsychological assessment battery in the evaluation of concussion in young athletes.

Reference: Dunning J, Batchelor J, Stratford-Smith P, et al. A meta-analysis of variables that predict significant intracranial injury in minor head trauma. Arch Dis Child. 2004;89:653-659.Clinical Question: Which clinical signs or symptoms of minor head trauma are predictive of intracranial hemorrhage in children and adolescents?Data Sources: Investigations were identified by MEDLINE and EMBASE searches from 1990 through 2002 by a search of the grey literature and by contacting experts for additional papers. The search terms were selected to find all studies reporting intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) or complications after head trauma.Study Selection: A full systematic review was conducted, and all cohort or nested cohort studies that presented data on minor head injuries in children less than 18 years old, with or without ICH, were identified. Studies were then judged for inclusion based on the presentation of a series of at least 100 patients and a documented reliable standard for the detection of ICH for all patients in the study. The use of computed tomography (CT) and medical follow-up was considered an acceptable gold standard. Intracranial hemorrhage was defined as any abnormality detected on the CT scan due to the traumatic presence of extravascular blood. Minor head trauma was defined as patients presenting with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 13-15.Data Extraction: Seven clinical correlates were used for data extraction, including skull fracture, headache, vomiting, focal neurology, seizure, loss of consciousness, and a GCS score of less than 15. Data were analyzed using a pooled estimate of the relative risk ratio with a random-effects model.Main Results: The searches identified a total of 2134 studies for the initial review. After an abstract review by 2 independent examiners, 98 studies were identified for a full-paper review. Each study was graded on a 4-point scale according to the level of evidence provided, using scales consistent with the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Thirty-four of these articles were of adequate quality for inclusion; however, many did not include data that could be separated into a specific data set for children, had too small a sample size, or lacked enough data on individual correlates to head trauma. Nineteen studies provided data on children, but 3 of these were excluded due to poor quality or lack of a reported CT scan, leaving a total of 16 studies for the meta-analysis.The analysis included a total of 22 420 patients ranging between 0 and 18 years of age. The meta-analysis showed a significant increased relative risk of ICH for patients sustaining loss of consciousness (2.23), GCS <15 (5.51), skull fracture (6.13), and focal neurology (9.43). No significant increases in risk for headache (1.02), vomiting (0.878), or seizure (2.82) were noted; however, heterogeneity was significant for this last correlate. The prevalence of ICH ranged from 1.3 to 36%, supporting the notion of a large amount of heterogeneity or variability in the inclusion criteria among the studies.Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that loss of consciousness, decreased level of consciousness (GCS <15), skull fracture, and focal neurology are risk factors for ICH in the pediatric population. However, these findings are not definitive enough to establish pediatric head-injury guidelines regarding CT scanning or admission to hospital after minor head trauma.

OBJECTIVE: To determine a balance recovery timeline after a functional exertion protocol using the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS). DESIGN AND SETTING: Five subject groups (4 test, 1 control) were tested 3 times during 1 session: once before the exertion protocol (pretest) and twice after the exertion protocol (posttest I and posttest II). Posttest I occurred at staggered intervals of 0, 5, 10, and 15 minutes, depending on experimental group assignment, and posttest II occurred at 20 minutes. SUBJECTS: One hundred subjects (80 test, 20 control) volunteered to participate in this study. None of the subjects had a balance disorder, mild head injury, or lower extremity injury in the 6 months before testing. MEASUREMENTS: We assessed balance using the BESS, assigning a score for each stance-surface condition. RESULTS: We found a significant decrease in BESS performance after the exertion protocol in all test groups, with exertion having the greatest effect on the tandem and single-leg stance conditions. All subjects recovered by posttest II, which was administered 20 minutes after cessation of the exertion protocol. CONCLUSIONS: Athletic trainers need to be aware of the effect of exertion when administering the BESS after physical activity. Athletic trainers can expect the BESS performance of healthy athletes to return to baseline levels within 20 minutes of rest.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the immediate effects of a whole-body fatigue protocol on performance of the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), a postural-stability test commonly used as part of a concussion-assessment battery. DESIGN AND SETTING: Subjects were assigned to a fatigue or control group and were assessed before and immediately after a 20-minute fatigue protocol or rest period. SUBJECTS: Fourteen fatigue subjects and 13 control subjects participated in this study. All subjects were male and free of vestibular disorders, and none had suffered a mild head injury or lower extremity injury in the preceding 6 months, as described through self-report. MEASUREMENTS: We measured performance on the BESS for 9 stance-surface conditions and summed each condition to obtain a total score. Using the Borg scale, we also measured ratings of perceived exertion before, during, and after the fatigue protocol or rest period. RESULTS: We found a significant increase in total errors from pretest to posttest in the fatigue group (14.36 +/- 4.73 versus 16.93 +/- 4.32), a significant decrease in errors in the control group (13.32 +/- 3.77 versus 11.08 +/- 3.88), and a significant difference between groups on the posttest. The rating of perceived exertion scores were significantly different between the fatigue and control groups at the middle (13.29 +/- 1.59 versus 6.23 +/- 0.83) and end (15.86 +/- 2.38 versus 6.15 +/- 0.55) of the fatigue or rest period. CONCLUSIONS: The BESS error scores increased immediately after the fatigue protocol, demonstrating that balance ability diminished. Clinicians who use the BESS as part of their sideline assessment for concussion should not administer the test immediately after a concussion due to the effects of fatigue.