Athletic trainers' beliefs toward working with special olympics athletes

Medical care provision at the venue of the weightlifting event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Purpose

This study aimed to investigate the medical care provided at the venue of the weightlifting event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated athletes who availed of medical services at the venue during the weightlifting event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In total, 194 athletes participated in the weightlifting competition.Injuries and illnesses were classified into cases handled without physician or cases requiring medical examination by a physician. These were tabulated for each examination location (athlete medical station, field of play [FOP], first-aid station of training floor or warm-up area).

Results

Throughout the event, a cumulative total of 132 people used the venue medical services. Nine athletes required medical attention at the athlete medical stations. Of these nine cases, six occurred on the training floor. In the FOP, nine athletes were examined. Two experienced light-headedness, two had knee pain, and the rest had other symptoms. No athletes wanted to undergo medical examination at the athlete medical station. 89 medical procedures were performed in the first-aid station on the training floor, including 52 tapings and 37 ice compressions, and the most frequent body part which needed treatment was the knee, followed by the fingers. At the first-aid station on the match floor, 25 medical procedures were performed, including 17 ice compressions, 5 haemostasis, and 4 tapings. The body parts that most frequently needed treatment were the fingers, knees, and lower legs.

Conclusion

Several athletes needed treatment; however, only a few required medical care from a physician.

Athletic Trainers’ Experiences Working With Athletes With a Physical Disability in School-Based Sports

This study describes the experiences of over 500 school-based athletic trainers (ATs) and their familiarity, knowledge, comfort, and confidence working with athletes with a disability. ATs’ experiences in managing the health care of school-based athletes with a physical disability are unknown. Half of the respondents indicated experience providing services to these athletes, while 70% indicated little to no specific training/education. About half of the ATs reported being comfortable and confident in managing the care of athletes with a physical disability, while a quarter reported being knowledgeable. Findings suggest that experience helps provide ATs with comfort and confidence in caring for these athletes, but educational opportunities are still needed.

Global initiative of the special olympics movement for people with intellectual disabilities

The mission of the Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and competition in a variety (33) of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and participate in sharing of gifts and friendship with their families, other athletes, and their communities. The Special Olympics movement often goes beyond the sports competition formula. During the last few years, the movement has developed many new global initiatives, which expand its former sports activities. They include:

Coaching excellence and the coaching model

Partnerships with international (regional) sports federations

Sports Resources Teams (SRT)

Extended quota for high level athletes

Athletes Leadership Program (ALPS)

Young Athletes Program

Youth volunteer initiatives

Unified Sports Program

Motor Activity Training Program

Healthy Athletes Program

These initiatives fulfill and expand the existing program, which was launched in 1968 and is the largest sports organization for people with disabilities worldwide, with very important new social, marketing, and developmental aspects of life, going far beyond activities met in other sports organizations.

Understanding athletic trainers' beliefs toward a multifacted sport-related concussion approach: application of the theory of planned behavior

CONTEXT

Practice guidelines recommend a multifaceted approach for managing concussions, but a relatively small percentage of athletic trainers (ATs) follow these recommendations. Understanding ATs' beliefs toward the recommended concussion practice guidelines is the first step in identifying interventions that could increase compliance. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) allows us to measure ATs' beliefs toward the recommended concussion practice guidelines.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the influence of ATs' beliefs toward the current recommended concussion guidelines on concussion-management practice through an application of the TPB.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

A Web link with a survey was e-mailed to 1000 randomly selected members of the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA).

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

A total of 221 certified ATs working in secondary school/clinic, high school, and college/university settings.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

A 66-item survey reflecting the current recommended concussion guidelines of the NATA and International Conference on Concussion in Sport was created to measure beliefs using the TPB constructs attitude toward the behavior (BA), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and behavioral intention (BI) of ATs. We used a linear multiple regression to determine if the TPB constructs BA, SN, and PBC predicted BI and if PBC and BI predicted behavior according to the TPB model.

RESULTS

We found that BA, SN, and PBC predicted BI (R = 0.683, R(2) = 0.466, F3,202 = 58.78, P < .001). The BA (t202 = 5.53, P < .001) and PBC (t202 = 9.64, P < .001) contributed to the model, whereas SN (t202 = -0.84, P = .402) did not. The PBC and BI predicted behavior (R = 0.661, R(2) = 0.437, F2,203 = 78.902, P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

In this sample, the TPB constructs predicted BI and behavior of ATs' compliance with recommended concussion-management guidelines. The BA and PBC were the most influential constructs, indicating that those with positive attitudes toward concussion-management recommendations are more likely to implement them, and ATs are less likely to implement them when they do not believe they have the power to do so. We theorize that interventions targeting ATs' attitudes and control perceptions will lead to improved compliance.