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.

Experimental Study on Alleviating Sports Injury through Data Screening of Functional Motor Biological Images

In order to better reduce sports injury, a method based on functional motion biological image data is proposed. Through performing functional motion screening test on wushu athletes, including 7 items of test, each athlete is given a score according to the test standard. This paper summarizes the mistakes and deficiencies of common movement patterns of athletes and makes different intervention plans to improve the effect of sports injury screening. The results show that, at P > 0.001 , there was a significant difference, and the experimental group FMS total score (15.02 ± 3.7) was lower than the control group FMS total score (18.51 ± 1.45). The recognition rate of the system is higher than that of the system based on single feature, and the recognition performance is better than that of the standard SVM and KNN recognition methods. It is proved that the design of the system is feasible, reliable, and effective.

Rasch analysis of the Brain Injury Screening Tool (BIST) in mild traumatic brain injury

Objective To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Brain Injury Screening Tool (BIST) symptom scale in a sample of people with a mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) through Rasch analysis, and to obtain an interval level measurement score for potential clinical use. Materials and methods Data were obtained from 114 adults aged over 16 years, who had experienced at least one mTBI in the past 10 years. Participants were recruited via social media, concussion clinics and sports organisations over a 4-month period between May and September 2020. Participants were asked to compete the symptom scale of the BIST tool via an anonymous online questionnaire. Internal construct validity, dimensionality, person separation index, and differential item functioning of the BIST were examined with Rasch analysis. Results BIST in its original form produced a satisfactory item-trait interaction, and good reliability, but was found to be multi-dimensional. Rasch analysis of the full scale with three domains as subtests resulted in acceptable model fit (χ2(6) =3.8, p > 0.05), with good reliability (Person Separation Index = 0.84), and uni-dimensionality. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis displayed no significant DIF effects for sex or age revealing that people responded consistently and similarly to the individual BIST items based on severity of symptom burden. Conclusions The 15-item symptom scale of the BIST tool is a psychometrically sound measure of symptom burden following mTBI. The findings provide support for use of both total and sub scale scores for clinical use. Ordinal to interval score conversions are recommended for use when using the scores for research purposes in mTBI.

Local dynamic stability of the lower-limb as a means of post-hoc injury classification

Since most sporting injuries occur at the lower extremity (50% to 66%) and many of those injuries occur at the knee (30% to 45%), it is important to have robust metrics to measure risk of knee injury. Dynamic measures of knee stability are not commonly used in existing metrics but could provide important context to knee health and improve injury screening effectiveness. This study used the Local Dynamic Stability (LDS) of knee kinematics during a repetitive vertical jump to perform a post-hoc previous injury classification of participants. This study analyzed the kinematics from twenty-seven female collegiate division 1 (D1) soccer, D1 basketball, and club soccer athletes from Auburn University (height = 171 ± 8.9cm, weight = 66.3 ± 8.6kg, age = 19.8 ± 1.9yr), with 7 subjects having sustained previous knee injury requiring surgery and 20 subjects with no history of injury. This study showed that LDS correctly identified 84% of previously injured and uninjured subjects using a multivariate logistic regression during a fatigue jump task. Findings showed no statistical difference in kinematic position at maximum knee flexion during all jumps between previously injured and uninjured subjects. Additionally, kinematic positioning at maximum knee flexion was not indicative of LDS values, which would indicate that future studies should look specifically at LDS with respect to injury prevention as it cannot be effectively inferred from kinematics. These points suggest that the LDS preserves information about subtle changes in movement patterns that traditional screening methods do not, and this information could allow for more effective injury screening tests in the future.

Anterior cruciate ligament injury mechanisms through a neurocognition lens: implications for injury screening

Athletes in team sports have to quickly visually perceive actions of opponents and teammates while executing their own movements. These continuous actions are performed under time pressure and may contribute to a non-contact ACL injury. However, ACL injury screening and prevention programmes are primarily based on standardised movements in a predictable environment. The sports environment provides much greater cognitive demand because athletes must attend their attention to numerous external stimuli and inhibit impulsive actions. Any deficit or delay in attentional processing may contribute to an inability to correct potential errors in complex coordination, resulting in knee positions that increase the ACL injury risk. In this viewpoint, we advocate that ACL injury screening should include the sports specific neurocognitive demands.

Implementing Ultrasound Imaging for the Assessment of Muscle and Tendon Properties in Elite Sports: Practical Aspects, Methodological Considerations and Future Directions

Ultrasound (US) imaging has been widely used in both research and clinical settings to evaluate the morphological and mechanical properties of muscle and tendon. In elite sports scenarios, a regular assessment of such properties has great potential, namely for testing the response to training, detecting athletes at higher risks of injury, screening athletes for structural abnormalities related to current or future musculoskeletal complaints, and monitoring their return to sport after a musculoskeletal injury. However, several practical and methodological aspects of US techniques should be considered when applying this technology in the elite sports context. Therefore, this narrative review aims to (1) present the principal US measures and field of applications in the context of elite sports; (2) to discuss, from a methodological perspective, the strengths and shortcomings of US imaging for the assessment of muscle and tendon properties; and (3) to provide future directions for research and application.