Racial and Ethnic Diversity of Athletic Trainers in National Collegiate Athletic Association Institutions, 2008-2018: A Retrospective Study

Context: Athletic trainers (ATs) are the most visible members of the sports medicine team and are responsible for the health and well-being of student-athletes. However, the representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) ATs in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) member institutions has not been studied.

Objective: To quantify the representation of BIPOC ATs in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) member institutions.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: National Collegiate Athletic Association's Demographic Database.

Patients or other participants: Team athletic personnel at NCAA member institutions.

Main outcome measure(s): Chi-square tests were used to assess differences in racial and ethnic frequencies across division, calendar year, and gender. Linear regression models were calculated to examine changes in racial and ethnic distributions of head and assistant ATs over time.

Results: Most NCAA ATs were categorized as White (88%), which was reflected in both head (90.8%) and assistant (87.2%) AT positions. Black ATs made up the largest proportion of a specific racial or ethnicity group within BIPOC ATs (3.4% of head ATs, 4.6% of assistant ATs), with the next most prevalent being Hispanic (2.8% of head ATs, 3.9% of assistant ATs). Historically Black Colleges and Universities showed higher proportions of BIPOC ATs in both the head and assistant categories than non-historically Black institutions. Division I schools had the greatest AT racial or ethnicity diversity in comparison with Divisions II and III (P < .0001). In our linear regression models, we found increases in many of the racial or ethnic categories for both head and assistant ATs.

Conclusions: We demonstrated that BIPOC ATs represented a small proportion of the ATs currently working at NCAA member institutions. Although BIPOC ATs have increased over the past 10 years, a large racial and ethnic discordance gap still exists between student-athletes and the ATs caring for them.