EPIDEMIOLOGY EVALUATION OF ATHLETIC INJURY IN UNIVERSITY CENTER

Introduction: Athletics is a sport with varied modalities, which are based on patterns and activities that are natural to human beings. As a sport, it has several benefits, such as improved physical condition and interpersonal interactions, but it is not free from risks, especially injuries related to competitions or training. Objectives: Characterize injuries presented by the university athletics group of the medical course and identify possible risk factors. Methods: Participants, enrolled in the athletics group of the medicine course, of both sexes, had anthropometric measurements evaluated and answered an injury screening questionnaire modified from the "Injury Surveillance System". Results: 31 participants responded to the questionnaire where 65% of them had at least one injury. A total of 23 injuries were reported, 20 of which were serious, with no significant difference between both sexes. The total practice time was almost 2 times longer in injured practitioners than in non-injured ones. Conclusion: The practice of university athletics is associated with a high occurrence of serious injuries.

The Effect of Single Sport Specialization in Youth Sports: A Prospective Cohort Study

Objectives: Large numbers of youth participate in both team and individual sports. In recent years, sports specialization has become increasingly popularized in younger athletes. There is concern that early sports specialization increases the risk of overuse injuries in youth athletes. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the prevalence of sport specialization in youth athletes, and prospectively examine whether specialization correlates with an increased incidence of athletic injury. Methods: 895 high school freshman athletes were enrolled starting in 2016, with the intent of following them through the completion of their high school careers. They were recruited from 3 high schools within the same school district. Sports specialization was defined as participating in a single sport in excess of 6 months of the year at the exclusion of other sports. Athletes’ demographic information, sport commitment and injury history were collected through a sports specialization and injury survey. The same athletes were queried again at the conclusion of each season to collect injury information. Athletic training records were used to corroborate, in order to ensure capture of all injuries reported to health care personnel. Results: Of the 895 athletes, 216 (24.1%) reported sport specialization at some point during their high school sports careers. Specialized athletes were exposed to significantly more sports activity (8.41 hours/week vs 7.10 hours/week, p<0.00001 ). They were also much more likely (70.6% vs 25.1%, p< .00001) to compete on a club or travel team for their sport. Male athletes were more likely to specialize than females (27.0% vs 19.3%, p<0.0072). Baseball (12.1% of specialized athletes vs 4.9% of all athletes, p<0.000032) main sport athletes were the only athletes significantly more likely to report specialization. Specialized athletes were significantly more likely than their nonspecialized counterparts to report an injury (39.8% vs 33.2%, p< 0.0271). These athletes suffered from higher severity injuries, requiring more time to recover than their peers. (p<0.0483). Despite the higher propensity for injury in specialized athletes and greater tendency for specialization in males, female athletes were more likely to report injures (p<0.0053). The most common reported injuries were of the knee, ankle, and head (18.6%, 18.2%, 16.6% of all injuries respectively). Season ending injuries were also most commonly knee, ankle, and head injuries (48.5%, 15.2%, 12.1% respectively), with 30.3% of all reported season ending injuries being ACL tears. Conclusions: Specialized student athletes tend to have significantly more injuries than non-specialized athletes, as well as more severe injuries than non-specialized athletes. This is one of the largest and most comprehensive studies to date, evaluating the effect of sports specialization on the incidence of athletic injury in high school athletes.

Arthroscopic, Single-Incision, and Double-Incision Approaches to Flexor Hallucis Longus Tendon Transfer Following Achilles Tendon Rupture: A Literature Review

Achilles tendon rupture is a common athletic injury that results in a painful and antalgic gait. Flexor hallucis longus tendon transfer through arthroscopic, single-incision, or double-incision techniques is used as a treatment approach to address this rupture; however, no studies have compared postoperative complications between these three techniques. A systematic search of published articles was conducted using keywords “Achilles rupture,” “flexor hallucis tendon,” “transfer,” and “recovery.” Articles were then selected based on their title, abstract, and content following full-text review. From each article's reported surgical outcomes, a comparison was made between arthroscopic and single- and double-incision postoperative complications using a χ2 test with significance set at a value of P &lt; .05 followed by post hoc analysis. The arthroscopic approach maintained the lowest rate of postoperative complications, followed by the single- and double-incision techniques. A significant difference in the number of postoperative complications was found between all incisional approaches. The pairwise comparisons, however, could not identify which incisional approaches significantly differed between each other. A reduction in postoperative complications places arthroscopy and the single-incision techniques as the preferred approaches for flexor hallucis longus tendon transfer following an Achilles tendon rupture. Although current literature shows arthroscopy to be superior to single- and double-incision methods, this review demonstrates the need for a greater number of published cases using arthroscopy to establish significance regarding postoperative complications.

Influence of Stress and Anxiety on Sports Injuries in Athletes

An athlete does not only require to be fit physically but also requires to be fit psychologically for their successful performance in sports activities. Hence, it is essential to understand the psychological risk factors which contribute to sport injuries in athletes. For this review, literature search in the international databases of PubMed, MEDLINE and Google Scholar was done by using following keywords: ‘sports injury’, ‘stress’, ‘anxiety’, ‘athletic injury’, ‘psychology’, ‘predictors’ and ‘athletes’. The studies published from 1992 to March 2020 and in the English language were included in this review. Of 120 articles obtained by the end of this search process, 18 full text articles were finally selected. Most of the study designs were cross-sectional studies or surveys, cohort studies and descriptive studies. The results indicated that stress and anxiety are two notable psychological variables which are associated with predicting injury in different sports and found to be significant with the incidence of sports injuries among athletes of different sports. It was found that stress and anxiety can influence the risk of injuries, injury frequency, and injury severity in athletes.

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Disordered Eating, Exercise Dependence, and Athletic Injury

Athletes can be at elevated risk for developing eating disorders, the effects of which can be devastating. Few researchers have examined the influence of a predisposition toward an eating disorder on athletic injury. Exercise dependence might bridge the gap toward understanding this relationship. This study sought to examine the relationship between predisposition toward an eating disorder and exercise dependence and looked at both as predictors of athletic injury. College students (n = 132) completed the Eating Disorders Inventory and the Exercise Dependence Questionnaire, as well as provided demographic, activity, and injury information. Subscales of the Eating Disorders Inventory and Exercise Dependence Questionnaire were significant predictors of having at least one athletic injury in the preceding year. These findings suggest that both predisposition toward an eating disorder and exercise dependence may be contributing factors to injury.

The Evolution of Psychological Response to Athlete Injury Models for Professional Sport

Elite competitive sport is linked with a unique collection of stressors distinct from the general population. While there have been advancements in understanding the role that stressors play within the elite sporting environment, uncertainty still exists around a clear process for measuring stressors, and their specific relationship to injury. A number of models have been proposed as useful frameworks for investigating and describing the role of stress and its interaction with the psychological response to athletic injury. While these models provide evolving points of view drawing on different theoretical backgrounds regarding their interpretation of athletic stress and injury, they offer little application to the applied elite sporting environment, and no detail of how they these models support athletes, and high performance staff in the applied setting. This narrative review will present two popular theoretical psychological models of sports injury rehabilitation. We argue that these models could be better applied in the current sporting environment if they utilized biological markers such as cortisol measures of personality. Extending from the Biopsychosocial model of injury, we present an updated model of injury quantifying the psychophysiological response for athletes [1]. This model is aligned with the current applied sporting landscape, incorporating the implementation of measurement practice guidelines, and offering high-performance staff an example that can be applied to their unique setting by assessing individuals' distinct measures of cortisol and personality in response to stress and injury.

Methods of the National Athletic Treatment, Injury, and Outcomes Network Surveillance Program (NATION-SP), 2014/2015 through 2018/2019

Background: The National Athletic Treatment, Injury, and Outcomes Network Surveillance Program (NATION-SP) was established in 2011 to provide a comprehensive appraisal of injuries sustained by high school student-athletes receiving services from athletic trainers (ATs). The purpose of this manuscript is to update the surveillance methodology of NATION-SP for data reported during the 2014/15 through 2018/19 academic years. Surveillance system structure: NATION-SP used a convenience sample of US high schools with access to ATs via a rolling recruitment model. ATs at participating institutions volunteered to contribute data through electronic medical records systems; common data elements were then pushed to and maintained by the Datalys Center. ATs completed detailed reports on each injury, including condition and circumstances. The treatments component was used to comprehensively assess services provided to athletes by ATs. The outcomes companion component was developed to monitor patient-reported outcomes following athletic injury. Summary: NATION-SP continues to serve a critical purpose in informing injury prevention and treatment efforts among high school athletes.

IMAGERY, PERSONALITY AND INJURY PERCEPTION IN SPORT – MEDIATING THE EFFECT OF INJURY PERCEPTION AND IMAGERY

Imagery is an often used technique in psychological mental training and here also during rehabilitation. Imagery ability enhances imagery use. The perception of injury but also individual differences themselves influence the rehabilitation outcome. The first purpose of the study was to examine the mediation effect of injury perception between general imagery and rehabilitation imagery. Our second aim was to examine the mediating effects of the general ten dency to employ imagery within the relationship between personality and the imagery of rehabilitation itself. The studyinvolved 56 athletes (37 men and 19 women) suffered a physical injury. The respondents were asked to provide demographic information and then to complete following questionnaires: The Athletic Injury ImageryQuestionnaire-AIIQ-2, (Sordoni et al., 2002), The Imagination in Sport Questionnaire (Budnik-Przybylska, 2014) – short version, and Blecharz’s Scale of Perception of Injury in Sport (SPUwS) (Blecharz, 2008). Series of mediation analyses were performed to estimate the strength of the indirect relationship between the general tendency to use imagery and the use of imagery in rehabilitation. It was fund that the general tendency to use imagery turned out to have a strong direct effect on rehabilitation imagery. Reflection and seeking positive sides turned out to be a mediator between general tendency to use imagery and all rehabilitation imagery dimensions. Reflection has the strongest effect between the general tendency to use imagery and cognitive specific imagery. General tendency to use imagery mediates the relationship between personality and imagery of rehabilitation. Some personality traits also influence directly imagery of rehabilitation. Our findings have revealed that the general tendency to use ima - gery may strengthen the relationship between personality and rehabilitation imagery. It may help to adjust the methods which might positively influence the rehabilitation process.