Muacevic A, Adler JR, Kalkbrenner MT, Kershaw Z, Seemann LL, Pujalte GGA. Effects of Athletic Trainer Direct Employment on the Management of Sports-Related Injuries in High School Athletes.
Cureus 2022;
14:e32995. [PMID:
36712732 PMCID:
PMC9878929 DOI:
10.7759/cureus.32995]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Hiring athletic trainers (ATs) in high schools has attracted rising interest as a potential way of improving adolescents' health by enhancing their safety and reducing their risk of injury.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to determine if there is a difference in the referral patterns, injury diagnoses, and injury treatments performed at a metropolitan high school when an AT is employed versus not employed by the school.
DESIGN
This is a retrospective quantitative two-period study.
SETTING
The study was conducted in the high school athletic department in Norfolk, Virginia, and the study population was high school athletes (age 14-18).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Changes in referral patterns, injury diagnoses, and injury treatments performed at a local high school when an AT is employed versus not employed by the school; specifically, we examined the number of and percent changes in yearly treatments, referrals, evaluations, and re-evaluations during the two periods.
RESULTS
Our first t-test revealed a statistically significant increase in the number of reported injuries between 2011-2015 (M = 58.00, SD = 44.86) and 2016-2020 (M = 299.00, SD = 40.93, p = 0.006. The second t-test revealed a statistically significant increase in the number of referrals between 2011-2015 (M = 249.00, SD = 353.41) and 2016-2020 (M = 1188.00, SD = 158.21), p = 0.014. The third t-test revealed a statistically significant increase in the number of treatment items between 2011-2015 (M = 150.67, SD = 175.32) and 2016-2020 (M = 636.67, SD = 211.72), p = 0.01.
CONCLUSIONS
The present study found an increased frequency of reported injuries, referrals, and treatment after ATs directly joined the staff of a large metropolitan high school. These findings suggest that direct employment of ATs is associated with greater recording of injuries and treatment of conditions. A reduction in referrals occurs with the presence of directly employed ATs, which could result in improved health for student-athletes, but this needs further study.
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