Реферат: Injuries In Sports Essay Research Paper Relationship

as the athletes who experienced concussion (eg, following a game or

practice). Within the context of these variables, it was possible for

controls to be matched to more than 1 player with concussion. No

control athlete experienced a concussion during the course of the

study. Controls were excluded from further study.

Data Analysis

Data from the 4 universities were pooled and analyzed using

Statistica Version 5.1 statistical software for Windows.23 To explore

the relationship between prior history of concussion, diagnosis of LD,

and neuropsychological baseline performance, multiple analysis of

variance (MANOVA) was performed. Concussion history (no prior

concussion vs 1 vs 2 concussions) and LD (positive or negative

diagnosis) were entered as independent variables, and cognitive and

symptom total scores were entered as dependent measures. The

MANOVA design was selected to allow an analysis of performance

differences between the athletes with different concussion and LD

histories, across multiple neuropsychological domains. This design

also permitted an analysis of possible interaction effects between

concussion and LD histories.

For in-season (postconcussion) data, a discriminant function

classification analysis was conducted to determine the accuracy of

the neuropsychological test battery in separating athletes with

concussions from control athletes within 24 hours of concussion. The

8 tests constituting the neuropsychological test battery were used as

predictor variables, and membership in the group with concussions or

control group was used as the dependent (grouping) variable.

To provide preliminary information regarding the recovery pattern of

athletes with concussions relative to the control group and to their

own baseline performance, standard scores were created to convert