Practitioners perceived effectiveness and application of maturity status bio-banding for talent identification and development

Bio-banding is an approach used to group athletes based on their characteristics in relation to growth and maturity, rather than their chronological age. Although recent research has explored the effect of bio-banding on various markers (e.g., technical, tactical) of talent identification in young athletes, research has yet to explore to what extent practitioners use this approach, how they use it, or their perspectives about its perceived effectiveness. This mixed-methods study sought to address this gap by using an on-line survey with twenty-seven practitioners from Elite Player Performance Program (EPPP) affiliated clubs followed by a semi-structured individual interview with seven practitioners (age: 32.1 ± 8.44 years). Survey results revealed maturity-related differences impact practitioners’ ability to accurately assess competence (e.g., physical “aggregated agree” = 68%, psycho-social “aggregated agree” = 56%), bio-banding enhances assessment when matching (e.g., Early vs Early or pre-PHV vs pre-PHV) (e.g., physical “aggregated agree” = 95%, technical “aggregated agree” = 85%) or pairing (e.g., Late vs Early or pre-PHV vs post-PHV) athletes for maturity status (e.g., physical “aggregated agree” = 55%, technical “aggregated agree” = 65%). Interview findings revealed the benefits of bio-banding include injury prevention, introducing challenge, and the design of individual development programmes. Interviews revealed barriers to the implementation of bio-banding include planning and organisation (time, resources and communication), failure to establish the buy-in, lack of understanding amongst coaches, and the prioritisation of short-term success over long-term development. Overall, the findings of this study contribute to the current knowledge and understanding of bio-banding efforts, and also emphasise the potential application of maturity status 'bio-banding' for identifying and developing professional youth soccer athletes. Increasing coaches understanding of bio-banding via the delivery of coach education courses and workshops may be one way of increasing its uptake in the future. The study concludes by recommending sports practitioners use the findings as a basis for implementing bio-banding in their own settings

Practitioners Perceived Effectiveness and Application of Maturity Status Bio-Banding for Talent Identification and Development

Bio-banding is an approach used to group athletes based on their characteristics in relation to growth and maturity, rather than their chronological age. Although recent research has explored the effect of bio-banding on various markers (e.g., technical, tactical) of talent identification in young athletes, research has yet to explore to what extent practitioners use this approach, how they use it, or their perspectives about its perceived effectiveness. This mixed-methods study sought to address this gap by using an on-line survey with twenty-seven practitioners from Elite Player Performance Program (EPPP) affiliated clubs followed by a semi-structured individual interview with seven practitioners (age: 32.1 ± 8.44 years). Survey results revealed maturity- related differences impact practitioners’ ability to accurately assess competence (e.g., physical “aggregated agree” = 68%, psycho-social “aggregated agree” = 56%), bio-banding enhances assessment when matching (e.g., Early vs Early or pre-PHV vs pre-PHV) (e.g., physical “aggregated agree” = 95%, technical “aggregated agree” = 85%) or pairing (e.g., Late vs Early or pre-PHV vs post-PHV) athletes for maturity status (e.g., physical “aggregated agree” = 55%, technical “aggregated agree” = 65%). Interview findings revealed the benefits of bio-banding include injury prevention, introducing challenge, and the design of individual development programmes. Interviews revealed barriers to the implementation of bio-banding include planning and organisation (time, resources and communication), failure to establish the buy-in, lack of understanding amongst coaches, and the prioritisation of short-term success over long-term development. Overall, the findings of this study contribute to the current knowledge and understanding of bio-banding efforts, and also emphasise the potential application of maturity status 'bio-banding' for identifying and developing professional youth soccer athletes. Increasing coaches understanding of bio-banding via the delivery of coach education courses and workshops may be one way of increasing its uptake in the future. The study concludes by recommending sports practitioners use the findings as a basis for implementing bio-banding in their own settings

Reliability of Serum Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulphate (DHEAs) as an Indicator of Skeletal Maturation: A Comparative study

The usefulness and reliability of serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate as an indicator of skeletal maturation with that of hand wrist radiographs was studied in sixty subjects including both males and females between the age group 7-30 years. The impact of mean serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate concentration was determined and assessed with hand wrist radiographs. The following conclusions were drawn. 1. Males and females having same level of skeletal maturation have similar serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate concentration. 2. Serum dehydroepinadrosterone sulphate concentration can be used as indicator of skeletal maturation. The present study is a cross-sectional study with relatively small sample size. A longitudinal study with a larger sample size would give us a better picture and open future venues

Automated Bone Age Assessment: Motivation, Taxonomies, and Challenges

Bone age assessment (BAA) of unknown people is one of the most important topics in clinical procedure for evaluation of biological maturity of children. BAA is performed usually by comparing an X-ray of left hand wrist with an atlas of known sample bones. Recently, BAA has gained remarkable ground from academia and medicine. Manual methods of BAA are time-consuming and prone to observer variability. This is a motivation for developing automated methods of BAA. However, there is considerable research on the automated assessment, much of which are still in the experimental stage. This survey provides taxonomy of automated BAA approaches and discusses the challenges. Finally, we present suggestions for future research

The links between adolescent biological maturity, physical activity and fat mass development, and subsequent cardiometabolic risk in young adulthood

The metabolic syndrome has become a major public health challenge world-wide and, at least in the industrialized world, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome is increasing. There is evidence to show that biological and lifestyle risk factors for metabolic syndrome are present in adolescence, which suggests that the antecedents of the disease may lie in early life. The period of adolescence is characterized by a decline in physical activity (PA; lack of PA is a lifestyle risk factor for metabolic syndrome) and an increase in fat mass deposition (a biological risk factor for metabolic syndrome). Therefore, investigating how the development of these two variables relates to adult cardiometabolic risk is important to fuel early intervention. A factor which has the potential to influence these two risk factors, and thus ultimately the metabolic syndrome, is the timing of biological maturity (i.e. whether an individual is early, average or late maturing when compared to peers of the same age). The influence of biological maturity has largely been overlooked in previous research; therefore, the general objective of this thesis was to investigate the associations between biological maturity, adolescent PA and fat mass development, and young adult cardiometabolic risk. Three studies were necessary to realize this objective, and together help to elucidate the role of biological maturity in the adolescent decline in physical activity, fat development, and the development of adult metabolic syndrome. Ultimately, this information will aid in the development and implementation of interventions to decrease prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Study 1: The purpose of study 1 was to investigate whether observed gender differences in objectively measured PA in children (8 to 13 years) are confounded by biological maturity differences. Methods: Four hundred and one children (194 boys and 207 girls) volunteered for this study. An Actigraph accelerometer was used to obtain 7 consecutive days of minute-by-minute PA data on each participant. Minutes of moderate to vigorous PA per day (MVPA), continuous minutes of MVPA per day (CMVPA), and minutes of vigorous PA per day (VPA) were derived from the accelerometer data. Age at peak height velocity (APHV), an indicator of somatic maturity, was predicted and individuals aligned by this biological age (years from APHV). Gender differences in the PA variables were analyzed using a two-way (gender X age) ANOVA. Results: Levels of PA decreased with increasing chronological ages in both genders (

Blood pressure and its correlates in children and adolescents in urban Nigeria

Background: A substantial increase in the incidence of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and a decline in communicable diseases and poverty-related diseases are occurring in developing countries (including Nigeria) as a result of an epidemiological transition. Given the burden and poor outcomes of NCDs related to hypertension or high blood pressure (BP) in adulthood, there is an urgent need for the identification of high risk individuals in early life. High BP has already been reported amongst young people worldwide, including Nigeria. High BP in childhood is predictive of high BP in adulthood. There is very little information available on the distribution of blood pressure in children and adolescents, and the factors which determine its distribution in Nigeria. Objectives: To determine the association between: socio-economic characteristics and blood pressure, pubertal maturation status and blood pressure, and anthropometric measures of adiposity and blood pressure in children and adolescents in Nigeria; and also to determine the overall prevalence of hypertension in the population of secondary school aged children and adolescents in Nigeria. Methods: A school-based stratified randomised cross-sectional survey of students aged 11 to 18 years was carried out in the urban area of Lagos, Nigeria. Blood pressure, body weight, height and waist measurements of the participants were obtained. A self-complete validated questionnaire was used to obtain sociodemographic information, health-related information, socio-economic characteristics (including living circumstances and parent/carer education level) and pubertal maturation status of the participants. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Results: 1086 students (538 males and 548 females) participated in the study, giving a total response rate of 90.5%. The overall mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure was 105.23±12.63mmHg and 57.87±8.09mmHg, respectively. The overall prevalence of hypertension was 2.5%. Socio-economic characteristics, pubertal maturation status, body mass index and waist circumference were statistically significantly associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study suggests that the epidemiological transition exists and is having measurable effects in school children in Nigeria. The findings highlight the presence of hypertension, and also the need for investigation of factors associated with blood pressure in children and adolescents so as to guide health policy, public health preventive interventions and health practice for child and adolescent hypertension. This study has long term implications for an extra burden of chronic non-communicable diseases related to hypertension in Nigeria

A study of growth and development in the distal radius using the metaphyseal index

Introduction: Metaphyseal inwaisting is a process that occurs during long bone growth and remodelling of epiphyses and results in a proportional increase in growth plate width (GPW) and a decrease in metaphyseal width (MW). The Metaphyseal Index (MI) compares GPW to MW, usually in the distal femur. However, due to bone-age assessments, the most commonly performed radiograph in children is that of the hand/forearm. Previous work showed that gymnasts have a more widened growth plate at the distal radius than normal children, but these studies did not quantify the morphological changes using the MI and pQCT measures. Previous studies have shown that the use of DXA hand/forearm images for the purposes of bone-age assessment were unreliable for children aged 11 and under. Aims: Examine distal radius morphology of 378 Normal subjects (155 male), 36 Gymnast subjects (15 male), 17 NF1 subjects (7 male) and 108 CDGP subjects (83male) to calculate the precision of MI, MW and GPW measurements, to determine a normal reference range for the MI in Normal subjects and use this to compare to the other 3 groups, and to compare longitudinal measurements. Also, to investigate whether DXA software upgrades have improved the ability to make TW3 bone-age assessments, to investigate how closely DXA compares with standard radiographs using 98 (38 male) DXA hand images and radiographs, and calculate the precision (CV%) of the GP and TW3 bone-age assessment methods. Methods: Anthropometric data, Tanner stage, posterior-anterior hand radiographs and pQCT scans of the non-dominant hand/forearm were obtained. MI was measured using a semi-automated computer-assisted method. Statistical analyses were used to compare males and females, and compare the Normal group to other groups. Also, DXA images and radiographs were assessed by the same assessor and the TW3 and GP bone-ageing methods were compared. A CV% was calculated for both comparisons. Results: The CV% of MI, MW and GPW = 1.05%, 0.92% and 1.28% respectively. MI of males and females was not statistically different in any group. The MI of Gymnasts was significantly lower than the Normal group (p = 0.008). The NF1 and CDGP groups were not significantly different from the Normal group. Longitudinal measurements indicated those with a low/high MI at the first visit were likely to have a low/high MI at the second visit, though occasionally the MI would decrease between visits. DXA bone age assessments proved to be reliable in subjects of all ages assessed in this study and showed a CV% only slightly higher than standard radiographs (CV = 2.95% DXA vs2.68% radiograph). The CV% of GP and TW3 methods = 2.68% & 1.61% respectively. Discussion: The CV% of MI, MW and GPW shows these methods to be very precise. The mean MI of gymnasts is significantly lower than in normal children due to a widening of the growth plate and not due to a reduction in metaphyseal width. Insufficient subject numbers and smaller age ranges, particularly in the Gymnast and NF1 groups may play a part in the non-significant differences between them and the Normal group. DXA CV% shows that DXA is almost interchangeable with standard radiographs. The TW3 and GP CVs% show that TW3 bone-age assessment is more precise than the GP method. This confirms the tight control that the MW and GPW have in proportion to each other. This is the first study to quantify changes in distal radius morphology in normal, athlete and disease groups, and create a range of normal reference values, which could be useful for future work in this area.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Vital Signs, Fall 2014

A sixty-four page newsletter created by the Boonshoft School of Medicine to document the current affairs of the school. This issue includes a variety of feature articles, a research spotlight, alumni notes, and more.https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/med_vital_signs/1021/thumbnail.jp

Dental age determination in South Australian children

Thesis (M.D.S.) -- University of Adelaide, Dental School, 199