Term of Award

Spring 2018

Degree Name

Master of Science in Kinesiology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Health Sciences and Kinesiology

Committee Chair

Nicholas Murray

Committee Member 1

Barry Joyner

Committee Member 2

Jessica Mutchler

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: An increase in acute lower extremity (LE) injuries have been observed in athletes following sports-related concussion.1, 2, 3 It has been suggested that lingering postural control deficits as a result of concussive injury, may play a role in the increased prevalence of injury.1 PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between baseline postural control metrics (Root Mean Square; Peak Excursion Velocity; Sample Entropy) and acute LE injury frequency in NCAA Division I student athletes (SA) with a previous history of concussion. METHODS: Eighty-four NCAA Division I SA were selected from a single university, 42 SA with a previous history of concussion (CONC) and 42 without as the control group (CTRL). Baseline postural control assessment, measured via force platform (Sample frequency 1000Hz), and medical charts were retrospectively reviewed. Postural control assessment consisted of three trials of eyes-open (EO) and eyes-closed (EC) quiet stance for duration of 30 sec. Center of pressure data was used to quantify peak excursion velocity (PEV), root mean square (RMS) and sample entropy (SampEn) in the anterior-posterior (AP) and medial-lateral (ML) direction. Medical records were assessed for all acute LE injuries sustained one-year following baseline postural control assessments. RESULTS: Chi squared analysis revealed a significant increase in frequency (p = 0.025) of acute LE injuries within CONC (22/49 = 44.9%) in comparison to CTRL (10/44 = 22.7%). Paired sample t-test demonstrated a significant decreased in EC PEV AP (p = 0.006) of the CONC group (0.063 ± 0.025) compared to CTRL (0.078 ± 0.038) with moderate effect (Cohen’s d = 0.487), but lacked significance in all other conditions. While the logistic regression model lacked overall significance (p = 0.379), participant group (B = 1.302, P = 0.033) and EO SampEn AP (B = -6.086, P = 0.062) were significant predictors for acute LE injury. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that SA with a previous history of concussion do have a higher acute LE injury frequency than those without a history of concussion. And variations in baseline postural control assessments may help to identify this increase in frequency

Research Data and Supplementary Material

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