Citation

Quatman-Yates CC, Bonnette S, Hugentobler JA, Médé B, Kiefer AW, Kurowski BG, Riley MA. Pediatr. Phys. Ther. 2015; 27(4): 316-327.

Affiliation

Division of Occupational and Physical Therapy (Drs Quatman-Yates and Hugentobler), Division of Sports Medicine (Drs Quatman-Yates, Hugentobler, and Kiefer), and Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Dr Kurowski), Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; Division of Pediatrics, College of Medicine (Drs Quatman-Yates and Kiefer), and Center for Cognition, Action, and Perception, Department of Psychology (Mr Bonnette and Drs Quatman-Yates, Kiefer, and Riley), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio; City College of New York (Mr Médé), New York.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PEP.0000000000000193

PMID

26397071

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of postural sway variability as a potential assessment to detect altered postural sway in youth with symptoms related to a concussion.

METHODS: Forty participants (20 who were healthy and 20 who were injured) aged 10 to 16 years were assessed using the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) and postural sway variability analyses applied to center-of-pressure data captured using a force plate.

RESULTS: Significant differences were observed between the 2 groups for postural sway variability metrics but not for the BESS. Specifically, path length was shorter and Sample and Renyi Entropies were more regular for the participants who were injured compared with the participants who were healthy (P <.05).

CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that postural sway variability may be a more valid measure than the BESS to detect postconcussion alterations in postural control in young athletes.

Language: en