Effects of Social Support on Compliance in Rehabilitating Athletes

The purpose of the study was to better understand if social support has an effect at all on the athlete’s compliance in coming in to do their rehabilitation during an injury. Those who participated in this study were from the colleges and universities in the state of Ohio. The participants were collegiate athletes who were in a rehabilitation program for six or more weeks and had returned to play. Of the 56 surveys returned, 18 (32.14%) of those were fully completed, and nine (16.07%) of those, consisting of seven (77.78%) females and two (22.22%) males, met the criteria set. Athletes were “strongly satisfied” with the listening support that they received from their friends and athletic trainer (6 count each), seven athletes found it “very easy” to obtain more listening support from their athletic trainer, and 6 athletes answered “very much” for their athletic trainer for the questions on each persons contribution of listening support to their overall well-being. Athletes were then asked how they felt the social support they did receive impacted their desire to be compliant. A total of 89% answered yes with giving responses that had common themes such as: they felt encouraged, it was helpful, they were feeling stronger and better, and it motivated them. Those who answered no (11.11%) responded that the social support did not have an impact on their desire to attend rehabilitation due to the fact that they felt “self-motivated”. The definition of social support that was used was an exchange of resources between two individuals perceived by the provider or the recipient to be intended to enhance the well being of the recipient. The definition of compliance that was used was the behavior an athletes demonstrates by pursuing a course of action that coincides with the recommendations of the clinician. It was found that there is a relationship between these two factors, which promotes teaching athletes the importance of having proper social support during rehabilitation to increase compliance

Nutritional Knowledge Among Athletic Teams

The topic of sports nutrition has often been undermined in the athletic world. Practicing good nutritional habits has the ability to both improve performance and health. Several studies have examined nutritional knowledge among athletic teams; however very few have compared this knowledge among athletic teams. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of various athletes’ nutritional knowledge and evaluate the differences in this knowledge among NCAA Division II Athletic teams. A secondary purpose was to discover athlete’s confidence level in their nutritional knowledge as well as gain their opinion on how they would improve nutritional knowledge among athletic teams. Very few differences were able to be found between genders and athletic teams regarding nutritional knowledge. Also athletes overall did not score very high on the nutritional knowledge assessment. Additionally several beneficial suggestions were given on improving nutritional knowledge which include providing classes and having athletic trainers and coaches increase nutritional awareness. More research still needs to be done on this topic. However, steps should also begin to be implemented to increase the nutritional knowledge deficit among athletic teams with hopes of improving performance and health care of collegiate athletes

Kinesio Taping and the Circulation and Endurance Ratio of the Gastrocnemius Muscle

Context Kinesio Tex tape is a therapeutic tape that is applied with the Kinesio-taping (KT) method and is theorized to increase circulation and subsequently improve muscle function. However, little research has been conducted to determine how KT affects performance. Objective To determine the effect of KT on muscular endurance ratio, blood flow, circumference, and volume of the gastrocnemius muscle. Design Randomized controlled clinical trial. Setting Research laboratory. Patients or Other Participants Sixty-one healthy, active people (23 men, 38 women; age = 19.99 ± 8.01 years, height = 169.42 ± 23.62 cm, mass = 71.53 ± 36.77 kg) volunteered to participate. They were assigned randomly to 1 of 3 groups: treatment KT, sham KT, and control. Intervention(s) Tape was applied based on group assignment. The treatment KT group received the ankle-tape technique as described in the KT manual. The sham KT group received 1 strip of Kinesio Tex tape around the circumference of the proximal gastrocnemius muscle. The control group did not receive tape application. Main Outcome Measure(s) The dependent variables were blood flow in blood perfusion units, volume of water displacement in milliliters, circumference of the gastrocnemius muscle in centimeters, and endurance ratio in joules measured before, 24 hours after, and 72 hours after the intervention. Separate repeated-measures analyses of variance were conducted for each dependent variable. Results We found no group-by-test day interaction for endurance ratios (F4,116 = 1.99, P = .10). Blood flow, circumference, and volume measurements also yielded no differences among groups (F2,58 range, 0.02–0.51; P \u3e .05) or test days (F2,116 range, 0.05–2.33; P \u3e .05). Conclusions We found KT does not enhance anaerobic muscle function measured by endurance ratio. The KT also did not affect circulation or volume of the gastrocnemius muscle in a healthy population

Factors Contributing to Professional Self-Efficacy Levels in Recently Graduated Certified Athletic Trainers

Self-efficacy is an important factor for job success, but it has been cited as a missing factor in new athletic training graduates. Therefore, the objective of this study was to find what factors affect the development of self-efficacy in the recently graduated certified athletic trainer. A qualitative survey method was utilized that involved questions aimed to extract as much personal opinion and experiences as possible. Online surveys were sent out electronically to 1,000 prospective participants. A total of 64 survey responses were received but only 52 surveys were qualified for inclusion into the study. Data was collected via the online survey service and analyzed through review, synthesis, and extraction of common themes. Several themes were extracted and considered as factors that affect self-efficacy development in the recently graduated certified athletic trainer. The results provide legitimate suggestions for how to increase self-confidence in the athletic training student

Predictive Value of the Functional Movement Screen as it Relates to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury

Introduction: Anterior cruciate ligament injuries occur over 200,000 times annually in the United States alone (Brophy, et al. 2009). This injury strains the healthcare system and affects the players, teams, parents, and the organization they are a part of. There have been, however, clinically researched risk factors that predispose athletes to ACL injury (Gignac, et al. 2015; Laible, et al. 2014). As a result, there is a clinical need for an effective screening tool to identify those athletes at risk for ACL injury. The Functional Movement Screen has been shown to be an effective screening tool for detecting athletes who are at a greater risk for generalized injury, but its predictive value has never been tested for specific injury rates (Kiesel, et al. 2007; Chorba, et al. 2010; Kiesel, et al. 2015; Letafatkar, et al. 2014). Methods: We performed a prospective study on 20 freshman participants who were athletes on a NCAA Division II varsity soccer, basketball, or volleyball team. Results: The results of the study to this point include one men’s soccer athlete with a torn ACL and an FMS score of 19, leading us to believe that no correlation exists between FMS score and incidence of ACL injury at this time. The purpose of this study was to determine if FMS can be an effective tool for predicting risk of ACL injury in athletes

Effects of Antiepileptic Medications on Bone Density in Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are commonly prescribed antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) to manage seizures, manage behavior, and stabilize mood. Though research has been done on the effects of antiepileptic medications in patients with epilepsy, little study has been done on the persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities population. After surveying IDD patients with a history and current use of AEDs on osteoprotective behaviors, we were unable to use SPSS due to incomplete surveys and low sample sizes. However, we were still able to analyze for common themes, and we found that the most prevalent use of AEDs was for the management of epileptic seizures. We also found that the majority of participants completed weight bearing exercise, including walking, running, or weight lifting, more than three times per week and felt that they consumed a balanced diet. Vitamin D was the most commonly used supplement, and calcium was only used by four participants. Future research collection needs to have a larger sample size as well as more knowledgeable and thorough completion of surveys