•  
  •  
 

Keywords

athletic trainers, sports-related injuries, athletics, orthopedic, pediatric

Abstract

Context: There is sparse research on the relationship between athletic trainer (AT) employment and the number of athletes presenting to orthopedic clinics with sports-related injuries. The purpose of this study is to determine if athletic training services are associated with the frequency of first-time orthopedic office visits for sports-related injuries.

Methods: A retrospective chart review collected injuries between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020 from the electronic health records system for a hospital network in the Southeast United States with 6 orthopedic clinics and included 48 high schools hosting 20 sports with at least 1 AT per school. Patients in the dataset were in grades 7 through 12. Presence of an AT was quantified using a composite score of number and employment status. Full-time (FT) ATs were 1.0 and part-time (PT) and per diem (PRN) ATs were 0.5. Only sports-related injuries, presenting to the orthopedic clinic for the first time, were included. A Spearman’s rank correlation was used to determine if a relationship between the frequency of ATs and injuries reported to the orthopedic clinics existed.

Results: Patients (n = 7082) were 16 ± 2 y, presented primarily with acute injuries (54.9%, n = 3889), which mostly involved the lower extremity (50.8%, n = 2696). Most injuries resulted from football, soccer, basketball, and cheer accounting for 60% (n = 4246) of the sports-related injuries that reported to the orthopedic clinics. The average AT composite score was 1.6 ± 0.9 (range: 0.5 to 4.0). The Spearman’s rank correlation indicated there was a positive but moderate association (rs = 0.638, P < .001) between AT presence and frequency of sports-related injuries reporting to the orthopedic clinic.

Conclusions: A positive relationship between the presence of an AT and the frequency of pediatric sports-related injuries that reported to orthopedic clinics existed. This result begins to define the relationship between ATs and sports-related injuries reporting to orthopedic clinics.

Download

Share

COinS