Static and Dynamic Balance Assessment in Healthy and Concussed Adolescent Athletes

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the utilization of the Y Balance Test (YBT) alongside the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) during examination of healthy adolescent athletes (14-18 year old) as well as those with acute and chronic concussion.

Design: A repeated-measures study of balance in a cross-sectional convenience sample of adolescents participating in high-school athletics.

Setting: Data were collected on healthy athletes in their school setting for comparison purposes and on concussed athletes in the physical therapy rehabilitation center at the hospital.

Participants: Participants were a convenience sample of male and female athletes between the ages of 14 to 18 year old [180 healthy (111 male, 69 female) and 44 (28 male, 16 female) with concussion].

Assessment of risk factors: All participants were cleared for participation by preparticipation examination or by the treating sport medicine physician.

Main outcome measures: Healthy athletes performed the YBT, a dynamic assessment of balance. Athletes with concussion also performed the BESS, a static assessment of balance.

Results: Means for each YBT reach direction were statistically different for both healthy males and females ( P < 0.05). Within both the acute and chronic subsets of the concussed sample, some participants performed over the median value for the BESS but not the YBT.

Conclusions: These data may suggest that dynamic balance testing in conjunction with static balance testing could be valuable in both the acute and chronic phases of concussion to ensure a comprehensive assessment of the necessary balance skills for athletic play.