Background: Research suggests that musculoskeletal injury (MSI) influences cognitive functioning. Cognitive functioning following MSI in athletes is not evaluated currently. Purpose and Method: To examine cognitive deficit in athletes following musculoskeletal injuries, the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric (ANAM) was administered to 22 varsity athletes prior to competition and following MSI. A healthy comparison group of 22 athletes was also tested at time intervals matched with the injured group. Results: A 2 (Group) X 2 (Time) repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant main effects for time on ANAM subtests of Delayed Code Substitution and Simple Reaction Time. Post-hoc Paired t-Tests revealed significant improvements in both groups for Simple Reaction Time, and a significant improvement for the comparison group on Match-to-Sample. Implications: Athletes with musculoskeletal injuries did not show cognitive deficit post-injury; however, the apparent absence of practice effects on a test of spatial processing and working memory requires further examination.

Background: Research suggests that musculoskeletal injury (MSI) influences cognitive functioning. Cognitive functioning following MSI in athletes is not evaluated currently. Purpose and Method: To examine cognitive deficit in athletes following musculoskeletal injuries, the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric (ANAM) was administered to 22 varsity athletes prior to competition and following MSI. A healthy comparison group of 22 athletes was also tested at time intervals matched with the injured group. Results: A 2 (Group) X 2 (Time) repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant main effects for time on ANAM subtests of Delayed Code Substitution and Simple Reaction Time. Post-hoc Paired t-Tests revealed significant improvements in both groups for Simple Reaction Time, and a significant improvement for the comparison group on Match-to-Sample. Implications: Athletes with musculoskeletal injuries did not show cognitive deficit post-injury; however, the apparent absence of practice effects on a test of spatial processing and working memory requires further examination.

Submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Background Dog agility has become one of the most popular canine sport disciplines, growing annually with many owners enrolling their canines without an educated understanding of what the sport of agility entails. Various factors have been identified that can contribute to the injury of the agility dog, these include coming into contact with the agility equipment, the experience of the dog, nutrition, supplementation, handler training in warm up technique and participation in additional sporting activities such as flyball, and risk factors such as breed, sex and age of the dog have been shown to have an impact on the prevalence and type of injury that sporting dogs are at risk for, most commonly, injuries to the shoulder, wrists, hip and an extensive range of soft tissue injuries. There is a significant knowledge gap in the literature that describes injury prevalence, profiles and the potential risks facing the sporting canine participants in a South African context and that, as more and more owners are seeking out CAM therapies such as chiropractic, literature is needed in order to enable these owners and veterinary chiropractors to better understand the risk that the sport of agility entails. Chiropractic treatment can offer both treatment and prevention, from enhancing the performance of the canine athlete, allowing them to compete more effectively and for a longer period at national and international level, to improving the quality of life of the geriatric canine patient. Aim The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and selected risk factors of musculoskeletal conditions affecting working canines registered in the herding breed category in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Study Design This study was a cross sectional, prospective survey of sporting canine owners registered with the KZNDAA. The study employed a quantitative descriptive design. Participants The study comprised of 70 dogs registered to 38 owners who are affiliated with the KZNDAA. Methodology Potential participants were identified on the KZNDAA membership list. These members were approached by the researcher at registered agility shows and invited to participate in the study. Once it has been established that the owners and the canines met the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study, participants were required to sign a letter of information and confidentiality and a consent form and were included as participants in the study. The research questionnaire was then given to participants, who then completed the questionnaire on site and returned it by hand to the researcher. Data was captured on excel and transferred to IBM SPSS version 23. A p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and range were used to describe continuous variables which were normally distributed, while median and inter-quartile range were used for skew variables. Categorical variables were summarized using frequency tables. Associations between lifetime prevalence and risk factors were tested using Pearson’s chi square tests for categorical risk factors, or Fischer’s Exact tests for continuous variables. Results The period prevalence of MS conditions was found to be 8.5% and the lifetime prevalence 45.8%. Injuries were found to occur most often during play, followed by injury during agility competition, a very small percentage of the injuries incurred were due to direct contact with agility equipment. Shoulders and hips were the areas most commonly affected, with arthritis and DJD being the most prevalent type of conditions and muscular strains being the most prevalent type of injury. The breed with the highest prevalence of injury was the Border Collie(63%). Neutered males had the highest prevalence of injury (52%), followed by spayed females (30%). The 8-10 year old category had the highest prevalence of injury (30%), followed by the 2-4 year old category (22%). Large breed dogs in the 15-20kg weight category had the highest prevalence of MS injury (40%). Dogs participating in dog jumping showed a decreased risk of MS injury, while dogs participating in flyball showed an increased risk of developing MS injuries. Handlers with training in specific warm up techniques showed a decreased risk of having dogs developing MS injury. Reverse casualty associations were found between the increased risk of MS injury and dogs fed on Hills specific diets, dogs supplemented with glucosamine and chondroitin, and dogs currently receiving anti-inflammatories. Conclusion The prevalence of musculoskeletal (MS) injuries in agility dogs in KZN is low when compared to studies done outside of South Africa. Factors such as breed, age, sex, and weight of the dog influence the prevalence of MS conditions. Risk factors influencing the development of MS conditions include contact with the equipment, nutrition, participation in other sporting activities and whether warm up periods are allowed. A larger population is needed in order to further analyse the risk of injury in sporting dogs in a South African context. / M

Submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2018. / Background: Rhythmic Gymnastics is a sporting discipline involving the use of an apparatus (hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon or rope) to a choreographed routine with music. It requires agility, grace, co-ordination and most of all flexibility. Safety in Rhythmic Gymnastics is questionable when one takes training hours and the extreme flexibility required into consideration. An awareness and understanding of the prevalence and risk factors in Rhythmic Gymnastics will allow event organisers, medical personnel, managers, and coaches to adapt training approaches that will minimize the development of injuries. This information will also aid in developing monitoring systems to prevent adaptation injuries, which will lead to safer training and better management of gymnasts Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries in rhythmic gymnasts within the eThekwini municipality and to identify selected factors associated with an increased risk of injury, in order to improve the management of gymnasts. Methods: A quantitative, descriptive questionnaire-based survey with a Beighton Score assessment was conducted on 67 Rhythmic gymnasts in the eThekwini municipality. Statistical analysis was performed on the results obtained from the questionnaire and the Beighton Score using IBM SSS version 23.0. The Chi-squared test was used (Fisher’s Exact Test was used when the Chi-squared test was violated); A p value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Graphical representation of scores by groups was done using various types of tables and graphs. Risk factors for injuries were assessed using logistic regression. Factors were entered individually into the model to determine the co- efficients and odds ratios. Trend tests were computed in order to better assess associations between specific factors and injury. Results: A 100% response rate was achieved in this study. The average age of the participants was 12.3 years (95% CI= 11.7-12.8), average height was 148.5 centimetres (95% CI= 145.1-151.9), average weight was 41.0 kilograms (95% CI= 38.3-43.7), the average level of performance was 4.9 (95% CI= 4.1-5.8) and the average Beighton Score was 5.8 (95% CI= 5.3-6.3). The most commonly previously injured areas were the ankle (n=25) (14.0%), hip and knee (each n=19) (each 10.6%) and the low back (n=18) (10.1%). When considering the two most severe previous injuries the results stay similar, with the ankle being most commonly injured (n=15) (28.0%), followed by the hip (n=9) (17.0%) and the knee (n=6) (11.0%). When considering current injuries, the most commonly injured area is the knee and low back (each n=11) (each 14.5%), and the hip and ankle (each n=9) (each 11.8%). From the above it can be deduced that RG results in more injuries to the lower limb than the upper limb, or core/abdomen or the spine. The most common types of RG injury were muscle strains (n=16) (23.9%), followed by unsure (n=9) (13.4%) and joint sprains (n=8) (11.9%). The most common cause of injury for both previous and current RG injuries were overstretching and overuse ((n=23) (34.3%) for previous injuries; (n=15) (22.4%) for current injuries). Risk factors for injury were significant for the following: training hours per week (36.5 times for 5-8 hours of training per week; 15.7 times for under five hours of training per week; both when compared to more than 8 hours) and lack of balance skills included in RG training (4.5 times more likely than not). When considering treatment option used to keep the body in a good condition, a participant was 4.3 times more likely to utilize home remedies than any other treatment option. Trend tests noted that there is an increase in the mean of injuries as one goes up in age, up until a certain age (13-14 years of age for current injuries; 15-16 years of age for previous injuries), thereafter, there is a decease. Trend tests were also constructed for training hours per week; there was a directly proportional relationship between training hours per week and injury. Conclusion: When considering risk of injury in RG, many of the risk factors cannot be modified (such as age). Those risk factors that can be modified (such as training amount and components of training) should be considered by gymnasts and their coaches in order to implement strategies that could prevent injury. / M

The main goal of this study was to evaluate whether three dimensional musculoskeletal modelling (3D) is effective in assessing the safety and efficacy of resistance training equipment. The focus of the evaluation was on the biomechanical and anthropometric considerations of the end-user. 3D musculoskeletal modelling was used to evaluate four pieces of resistance training equipment, namely the seated biceps curl, abdominal crunch, seated row and chest press. Three anthropometric cases were created; these represented a traditional 5th percentile female as well as a 50th and 95th percentile male based on body mass index (BMI). Resistance on the training machines was set at fifty percent of the functional strength one repetition maximum (1RM), for each anthropometric case and piece of exercise equipment two repetitions were performed except for the abdominal crunch model during which four repetitions were simulated. Each piece of equipment presented unique challenges. In three of the four studies (seated biceps curl, seated row and chest press) the default model created by the modelling software was not adequate to solve the forward dynamics simulations and thus adjustments had to be made to the default model in order to complete the modelling process. 3D musculoskeletal modelling by means of LifeModelerTM software was able to identify some potential risk for musculoskeletal injury as well as highlight the discrepancies between the anthropometric cases, specifically the accommodation of the 5th percentile female and the machines’ engineered adjustability. 3D musculoskeletal modelling has the potential to indicate shortcomings in resistance training equipment design. Therefore it appears as if 3D musculoskeletal modelling can be used to evaluate resistance training equipment design however the limitations as indicated by this study must be taken into consideration especially when using default models.AFRIKAANS: Die doel van die studie was om die effektiwiteit van driedimensionele (3D) muskuloskeletale modellering te evalueer in terme van die tegniek se vermoë om die veiligheid en doeltreffendheid van weerstands oefenapparaat te evalueer. Die fokus van die evaluasie was op die biomeganiese en antropometriese oorwegings van die end-gebruiker. 3D muskuloskeletale modellering was gebruik in die evaluasie van vier weerstands oefenapparate genaamd die sittende biceps krul, abdominale krul, sittende roei en sittende borsstoot. Drie antropometriese gevalle is geskep, die het ‘n tradisionele 5e persentiel vrou, sowel as ‘n 50ste en 95ste persentiel man voorgestel en was gebasseer op liggaamsmassa indeks waardes. Die eksterne weerstand van die apparaat was bepaal teen vyftig persent van die funsionele krag een-repetisie- maksimum vir elk van die antropometriese gevalle en twee repetisies is uitgevoer behalwe vir die abdominale krul waartydens vier repetisies gesimuleer is. Elke apparaat het unieke uitdagings gestel. In drie van die vier studies (sittende biceps krul, sittende roei en sittende borsstoot) was die standaard model van die sagteware onvoldoende om die voorwaards dinamiese simulasie op te los en moes aanpassings aan die modelle gemaak word vir suksesvolle simulasies. Die modellerings proses met die Lifemodeler™ sagteware kon potensiële risiko vir muskuloskeletale besering sowel as verskille tussen die verskeie antropometriese gevalle uitwys. Dit was veral opvallend vir die akkomodasie van die 5e persentiel vrou asook betreffende die apparaat se vervaardigde verstelbaarheid. 3D muskuloskeletale modellering beskik oor die vermoë om voorstelle vir verbetering in die ontwerp van weerstands oefenapparaat uit te wys. Dit blyk dus dat 3D muskuloskeletale modellering beslis gebruik kan word vir die evaluasie van weerstands oefenapparaat ontwerp, die beperkings van die studie moet egter in gedagte gehou word, veral wanneer standaard modelle gebruik word. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences / unrestricted

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