Injury and Treatment Characteristics of Sport-Specific Injuries Sustained in Interscholastic Athletics

Abstract

Background:The inclusion of clinical practice factors, beyond epidemiologic data, may help guide medical coverage and care decisions.Hypothesis:Trends in injury and treatment characteristics of sport-specific injuries sustained by secondary school athletes will differ based on sport.Study Design:Retrospective analysis of electronic patient records.Level of evidence:Level 4.Methods:Participants consisted of 3302 boys and 2293 girls who were diagnosed with a sport-related injury or condition during the study years. Injury (sport, body part, diagnosis via ICD-9 codes) and treatment (type, amount, and duration of care) characteristics were grouped by sport and reported using summary statistics.Results:Most injuries and treatments occurred in football, girls’ soccer, basketball, volleyball, and track and field. Sprain or strain of the ankle, knee, and thigh/hip/groin and concussion were the most commonly documented injuries across sports. The injury pattern for boys’ wrestling differed from other sports and included sprain or strain of the elbow and neck and general medical skin conditions. The most frequently reported service was athletic training evaluation/reevaluation treatment, followed by hot/cold pack, therapeutic exercise, manual therapy techniques, electrical stimulation, and strapping of lower extremity joints. Most sports required 4 to 5 services per injury. With the exception of boys’ soccer and girls’ softball, duration of care ranged from 10 to 14 days. Girls’ soccer and girls’ and boys’ track and field reported the longest durations of care.Conclusion:Injury and treatment characteristics are generally comparable across sports, suggesting that secondary school athletic trainers may diagnose and treat similar injuries regardless of sport.Clinical Relevance:Subtle sport trends, including skin conditions associated with boys’ wrestling and longer duration of care for girls’ soccer, are important to note when discussing appropriate medical coverage and care.

Athletic Training Services During Daily Patient Encounters: A Report From the Athletic Training Practice-Based Research Network

“…The 4 domains of athletic training clinical practice related to injury management are (1) prevention, (2) clinical evaluation and diagnosis, (3) immediate care, and (4) treatment, rehabilitation, and reconditioning. 15 Although previous epidemiologic 16À20 and practice characterization 12,13 research has provided insight into the latter 3 domains, limited information has been available regarding preventive services. Thus, our results are important in highlighting the unique role of ATs as health care providers who provide substantial preventive services to their patients.…”

“…For example, the ''Summary document: appropriate medical coverage for secondary school athletes'' 8 and the ''Interassociation consensus statement on best practices for sports medicine management for secondary schools and colleges ''11 identified components of clinical practice that need to be considered when discussing appropriate athletic health care for interscholastic athletes. These clinical practice components include coverage of high-risk sports, 18,19 treatment and rehabilitation services, 12,13 and injury-and illness-prevention services. 26,27 Together with previous studies that characterized treatment and rehabilitation services in high-risk sports, our findings should help clinicians and administrators make more informed decisions about appropriate coverage at their clinical sites.…”

“…Detailed information regarding the EMR, including standards (eg, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Safe Harbor Method) and major components of the system, required clinician training related to its use, and procedures for data quality assurance have been previously described. 12,13 For this study, we reviewed records from the daily encounter forms of the EMR. The daily encounter form is used by ATs to document the individual athlete encounters that occur each day; it documents services such as preventive taping and bracing and performance-enhancement activities that might not be captured in other EMR forms, such as the daily treatment note or the full evaluation form.…”

“…Recent researchers 12,13 have begun to characterize patient and treatment characteristics of athletic training practice, yet it is likely that these data are primarily related to time-loss injuries and capture only a small portion of the daily demands on, workload of, and tasks performed by the athletic trainer (AT). The NATA's recently released ''Secondary school value model'' document 14 recommended that ATs supplement formal patient documentation with daily encounter or sign-in forms to record patient visits and services such as ice or heat application or injury-preventive measures (eg, taping) related to nontime-loss injuries.…”

“…Clinical data associated with these daily encounters are important to investigate because they may provide insight into the overall demand and volume of patient care associated with routine athletic training clinical practice and provide context for determining the appropriate medical care and coverage for interscholastic athletics. 12 Therefore, the purpose of our study was to analyze clinical data from daily encounter forms in the Athletic Training PracticeBased Research Network (AT-PBRN) to characterize daily athletic training services provided by secondary school ATs.…”