In 2015, a study of sports-related concussions among NCAA sports showed that football was the leader in concussions with 3,417 incidents annually. Women’s soccer followed with 1,113 incidents, then women’s basketball (998), men’s basketball (773), and men’s wrestling (617). Overall, the study found NCAA athletes suffered around 10,560 sports-related concussions annually.
San Diego State University researchers have developed a device they say is twice as effective as the most widely used balance test for concussions. Their research was recently published in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.
“As recently dictated by the American Medical Society, balance testing is an important component in the clinical evaluation of concussion,” the researchers wrote. “Despite this, previous research on the efficacy of balance testing for concussion diagnosis suggests low sensitivities (30 percent), based primarily on the popular Balance Error Scoring System (BESS).”
In the BESS test, athletes are asked to engage in a variety of stances while attempting to remain as still as possible. The test administrator then counts the amount of times the athlete deviates from the appointed stance. Deviations include such things as moving hands from the hips, and stumbling, among others.
Invented by San Diego State University kinesiologist Dann Goble, the BTrackS is a balance board that provides objective feedback on an athlete’s balance.
Of the 25 NCAA Division I college athletes studied following a concussion event, 16 “had balance declines relative to baseline testing results according to the BTrackS Sport Balance software criteria,” according to the researchers. “This corresponds to an estimated concussion sensitivity of 64 percent, which is twice as great as that reported previously for the BESS.”
According to San Diego State University, a score sway that averaged 5 cm higher than the baseline was indicative of a concussion. The baseline balance measurements were acquired from more than 500 NCAA Division I athletes from sports such as football, rugby, lacrosse, and soccer, among others.
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