Journal of athletic training
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Approximately half of individuals who sustain a concussion do not immediately report their injuries. Motivators for not reporting include thinking the suspected concussion was not a serious injury and wanting to continue participating in activity. Additionally, military personnel have concerns about how concussions may affect their careers. However, delayed reporting can prolong neurobehavioral recovery. Understanding the frequency of delayed reporting and contributing factors will aid in identifying individuals who may be more likely to delay reporting. ⋯ Roughly half of the cadets who sustained a concussion failed to immediately report their injury. Specifically, our data suggested that female cadets, cadets injured outside of competition, and highly competitive cadet-athletes were almost twice as likely to delay reporting as others.
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Assessments of the duration of concussion recovery have primarily been limited to sport-related concussions and male contact sports. Furthermore, whereas durations of symptoms and return-to-activity (RTA) protocols encompass total recovery, the trajectory of each duration has not been examined separately. ⋯ The initial total number of symptoms reported and varsity athlete status were strongly associated with symptom and RTA-protocol durations. These findings suggested that external (varsity status and academy) and injury (symptom burden) factors influenced the time until RTA.
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Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is one of the most prevalent knee conditions observed in women. Current research suggests that individuals with PFP have altered muscle activity, kinematics, and kinetics during functional tasks. However, few authors have examined differences in lower extremity biomechanics in this population during the drop-vertical jump (DVJ). ⋯ During the DVJ, women with PFP had increased hip internal-rotation moment and decreased knee-flexion excursion with less time to peak trunk flexion and lateral flexion. Muscle activation was increased in the vastus medialis but decreased in the gluteus maximus and biceps femoris. This suggests that altered motor-unit recruitment in the hip and thigh may result in changes in biomechanics during a DVJ that are often associated with an increased risk of injury.
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The relative availability of clinicians as well as the types and training of health care providers have been associated with morbidity and mortality in non-athletic health care settings. Whether staffing variations are associated with injury incidence in collegiate athletes is unknown. ⋯ In this study of collegiate men's ice hockey players, athlete health outcomes were directly related to the number and types of clinicians available. Future researchers should evaluate whether this finding extends beyond men's ice hockey.
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Recently, calls to conduct comparative effectiveness research (CER) in athletic training to better support patient care decisions have been circulated. Traditional research methods (eg, randomized controlled trials [RCTs], observational studies) may be ill suited for CER. Thus, innovative research methods are needed to support CER efforts. ⋯ The POC-CT includes the basic tenets of practice-based research because studies are conducted at the point of care, in real-life settings, and during routine clinical practice. If implemented effectively, the POC-CT can be seamlessly integrated into daily clinical practice, allowing investigators to establish patient-reported evidence that may be quickly applied to patient care decisions. This design appears to be a promising approach for CER investigations and may help establish a "learning health care system" in the sports medicine community.