Gait Assessment in College Athletes: Do Concussion History, Symptoms, Gender, and Type of Sport Matter?

Ankle Sprain History Does Not Significantly Alter Single- and Dual-Task Spatiotemporal Gait Mechanics

CONTEXT

Single- and dual-task walking gait assessments have been used to identify persistent movement and cognitive dysfunction among athletes with concussions. However, it is unclear whether previous ankle sprain injuries confound these outcomes during baseline testing. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of (1) ankle sprain history and (2) time since prior ankle sprain injury on single- and dual-task spatiotemporal gait outcomes and cognitive measures.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

We assessed 60 college Division-I athletes (31 with ankle sprain history; 13 females and 18 males, 19.3 [0.8] y; 29 with no ankle sprain history, 14 females and 15 males, 19.7 [0.9] y) who completed injury history forms and underwent concussion baseline testing. Athletes completed single- and dual-task gait assessments by walking back and forth along an 8-m walkway for 40 seconds. Athletes wore a smartphone with an associated mobile application on their lumbar spine to record spatiotemporal gait parameters and dual-task cognitive performance. Separate multivariate analyses of variance were used to assess the effects of ankle sprain injury history on spatiotemporal measures, gait variability, and cognitive performance. We performed a multivariate regression subanalysis on athletes who reported time since injury (n = 23) to assess temporal effects on gait and cognitive performance.

RESULTS

Athletes with and without a history of ankle sprains had comparable spatiotemporal and gait variability outcomes during single- (P = .42; P = .13) and dual-task (P = .75; P = .55) conditions. Additionally, ankle sprain injury history did not significantly influence cognitive performance (P = .35). Finally, time since ankle sprain did not significantly affect single- (P = .75) and dual-task gait (P = .69), nor cognitive performance (P = .19).

CONCLUSIONS

Ankle sprain injury history did not significantly alter spatiotemporal gait outcomes nor cognitive performance during this common clinical assessment. Future studies may consider including athletes with ankle sprain injury history during concussion assessments.

Paradigm and Path of Released Prisoners’ Rights of Rehabilitation from the Perspective of Social Governance

In order to better solve the problem of the return of released prisoners to society and reduce the second crime rate after rehabilitation, the main factors affecting the rehabilitation of released prisoners and the specific situation of reoffending were studied from the perspective of social governance. There is a big difference between the sentence period of the first crime and the second crime. The proportion of those sentenced to less than 5 years for the first time is 86.1%, and the proportion of those sentenced to less than 3 years for the second time is 31.1%. Compared with the first crime, the proportion of those sentenced to more than 10 years has decreased by 56.7%, and the proportion of those sentenced to more than 10 years has increased by 8.6%. The figure shows that second offenses are more serious than first offenses. Those released from prison are likely to commit crimes again at any time after rehabilitation, and the proportion of reoffending within 5 years is 73.3%. The proportion of reoffenders who committed crimes for more than 5 years was 26.7%, indicating that the 5-year period after rehabilitation should be taken seriously to reduce the second crime rate. On this basis, the countermeasures for the rehabilitation of released prisoners are discussed.