Information processing and accidental injuries.
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Athletic Injuries↗
Biomedical subjects
S Taimela
Publications and source records attributed to S Taimela.
Reaction times with reference to musculoskeletal complaints in adolescence.
Recent studies have related long reaction times and various musculoskeletal complaints in different groups of adults. The aim here was to analyze reaction times with reference to musculoskeletal complaints in adolescent athletes and controls. Simple reaction time and choice reaction time were measured, and inquiries made about various musculoskeletal injuries of 119 subjects aged 11 to 14 years. Gender, age, maturational age, body composition, and participation in sports were included in the analyses as subject-related factors affecting reaction times. Prolonged simple reaction time was related to low-back and lower extremity complaints in a two-way analysis of variance. The finding agreed with data of previous studies suggesting that slow psychomotor speed of reaction is associated with the outcome of musculoskeletal injuries.
Adolescent↗
Subject characteristics and low back pain in young athletes and nonathletes.
Factors associated with low back pain (LBP) were sought by means of a questionnaire and physical measurements in 138 adolescents. One-hundred athletes and 38 nonathletes, 138 subjects total (58 boys and 80 girls; age range 10.3-13.3 yr), were studied. The questionnaire included questions on physical activity and LBP. Quantitative measurements on anthropometry, flexibility (joint hypermobility and muscular tightness), and strength were performed. There was no significant difference in the occurrence of LBP between athletes and nonathletes. Among the athletes, the duration of training during the past 12 months (min.wk-1) was higher in subjects with the experience of LBP during the past 12 months (N = 23) compared with nonsymptomatic subjects (N = 76) (mean 493 +/- 308 min.wk-1 vs 354 +/- 160 min.wk-1; P less than 0.0001). Similar differences were also seen between subjects with positive lifetime histories of LBP and nonsymptomatic subjects. Various differences were seen in the measurements of anthropometry, flexibility, and strength between boys and girls as well as between athletes and nonathletes. In a multivariate analysis, the cumulative incidence of lifetime history of LBP was associated with tightness of hip flexor muscles only (P = 0.014). LBP during the past 12 months was associated only with the amount of training during the past 12 months (min.wk-1) (P = 0.0066). Our study suggests that high training duration predisposes young athletes to LBP. However, e.g., the flexibility measurements cannot be used to determine athletes at high risk.
Adolescent↗
The relation of low grade mental ability to fractures in young men.
Reaction time, choice reaction time and mental ability were measured in a sample of 123 young men. Previous musculoskeletal injuries were noted. Eight subjects who had experienced a bone fracture in the preceding 20 months had significantly longer choice reaction time and poorer mental ability test results than the non-injured. This preliminary result shows that long choice reaction time and poor performance on mental ability tests are associated with accidental musculoskeletal injuries.
Adult↗
Stress injury proneness: a prospective study during a physical training program.
A sample of 108 army conscripts answered two personality questionnaires and performed a series of motor ability and mental ability tests at the beginning of their military service. Occurrence of stress injuries was followed for a twelve-week period after the tests. The period included programmed physical training similar for all the subjects. On average, the subjects who experienced a stress fracture during the follow-up were tall and they also turned out to have been inactive in sports. The average personality profile in the stress fracture group showed low scores in achievement, dominance and exhibition traits. In addition to knowing the risk of a sudden increase in training intensity in stress injury development, height and the above mentioned personality factors should be known in order to be able to recognize a high risk patient in optimal stress injury prophylaxis, e.g. when planning training programs.
Adolescent↗
Intrinsic risk factors and athletic injuries.
The benefits of physical activity are widely known. However, the risk of a musculoskeletal injury is an unfavourable consequence in physical training. Age, gender, injury history, body size, local anatomy and biomechanics, aerobic fitness, muscle strength, imbalance and tightness, ligamentous laxity, central motor control, psychological and psychosocial factors as well as general mental ability are factors in the predisposition to injury. Junior (15 to 16 years) and senior athletes seem to be at a higher risk of injury in many types of sport. However, the relationship between age and injuries apparently depends on both the type and intensity of activity practiced. The majority of injured athletes in many studies have been males. Men are, however, more likely to participate in vigorous exercise and sport and it is not known if men are at a generally higher risk of injury when the exposure is taken into account. Certain lesions, such as sprains, strains and dislocations, tend to recur. Previous injuries may necessarily not cause a repetition of injury if treated adequately, but certain individuals may be at a higher risk of injury due to injury-prone biological characteristics. Excessive height and weight have been shown to predispose to stress injuries in physical training. Idiopathic or acquired abnormalities in the anatomy or biomechanics in any joint may lead to a local injury. However, physical requirements vary widely between different types of activity and predisposition to injury due to anatomical or biomechanical factors seems to be characteristic for each type of exercise. Lack of fitness, muscle weakness, joint looseness and poor general flexibility have been suggested as factors in the outcome of athletic injuries but no definite conclusions can be made on the basis of the existing literature. Long simple reaction times to visual stimuli and long choice reaction times to visual stimuli have recently been related to musculoskeletal injuries. No exceptional personality dimension in injury proneness as a whole has been found and the results from specific groups cannot be extrapolated generally. Accumulation of life stress apparently predisposes to an athletic injury. Musculoskeletal injuries seem to be more common in subjects with lower scores in intelligence tests but no causation has been shown yet. Altogether, a complex network of risk factors for athletic injuries has been found. However, no prospective study including all the recognised injury risk factors has been presented in the literature.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Adolescent↗
Relation between speed of reaction and psychometric tests of mental ability in musculoskeletal injury-prone subjects.
Long reaction time (RT), long choice reaction time (CRT), and low scores on psychometric tests of mental ability (MA) have in previous studies been related to musculoskeletal injuries. There has been controversy concerning the relation between slow reaction and low-grade MA recently, the old hypothesis of negative correlation between RT and MA being discussed. The aim of this study was to analyze the relation between speed of reaction and MA. For a sample of 123 volunteer healthy young men simple RT, choice RT, and spatial (block design), verbal and arithmetic components of MA were tested. A principal component analysis was performed and the factor matrix was rotated orthogonally using the varimax method. Two factors were extracted accounting for 73% of the total variance in data space. The mental ability factor, which was responsible for 70% of the variance in factor space, was comprised of components of MA and choice RT. The speed of reaction factor accounted for the remaining 30% of the variance in factor space and was comprised of simple and choice RTs. As choice RT had significant loading on the mental ability factor, the subjects having scores in the lowest quartile on both choice RT and MA total score were compared with the independent expected value by using the chi-squared test. The results of low-grade MA and slow choice reaction were not independent. Accordingly, the results do not support the entire distinction between traditional mental ability or convergent thinking and speed of reaction in normal subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Accident Proneness↗
Motor ability and personality with reference to soccer injuries.
Thirty-seven male soccer players performed a series of motor ability tests and answered the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (the 16PF). A past-injury examination and interview was performed by a physician and occurrence of injuries was followed up prospectively for one year. Stepwise regression analyses revealed significant associations between past injuries and long reaction time as well as personality factors N (astute) and H (shy). We conclude that both weakness of motor abilities, especially long reaction time, and a specific personality type may predispose a player to soccer injuries.
Adolescent↗
A simple preservative for flow cytometric DNA analysis.
A solution containing citric acid buffered saline (CABS) and 99% ethanol (E) 1:1 was used for preserving cells for flow cytometric DNA analysis. DNA histograms obtained from fine needle biopsy aspirates and preserved in CABS+E had a similar mean coefficient of variation (CV) as was obtained from aspirates taken in CABS (3.3 vs. 3.4%) and a clearly smaller mean CV than was obtained from aspirates preserved in 50% ethanol (mean 4.8%, P less than .0001). Aspirates taken in CABS more often contained a small (less than 3,000) number of cells as compared with aspirates preserved either in CABS+E or ethanol (P less than .0001). Since preservation of cells in CABS+E allows long-term storage of samples and results in a decreased number of insufficient samples as compared with buffered saline and in an enhanced resolution as compared with 50% ethanol, CABS+E is recommended for preservation of cytological samples to be analyzed for DNA content with flow cytometry.
Biopsy, Needle↗
Patellofemoral relationships in recurrent patellar dislocation.
Magnetic resonance imaging was used to analyse the patellofemoral relationships during the first 30 degrees of knee flexion in women with recurrent patellar dislocation. The patellofemoral joints were imaged both sagittally and axially with the knee flexed 0 degrees, 10 degrees, 20 degrees, and 30 degrees. At the beginning of knee flexion the sulcus angle was greater than in unaffected women, the lateral patellofemoral angle was smaller, the patella displaced further laterally, tilted more laterally and the congruence angle was directed more laterally. At 30 degrees of knee flexion these differences were less marked than at 0 degree to 10 degrees. Logistic regression analysis showed that the sulcus angle at 10 degrees of knee flexion was the most diagnostic feature, indicating that there is an anatomical predisposition to recurrent dislocation and that pathological patellar tracking starts from the beginning of flexion. Traditional sunrise radiographic films taken at 25 degrees to 30 degrees knee flexion clearly miss diagnostically important information.
Adolescent↗