Coverage from medical teams and injury/illness epidemiology within youth athletics in Africa: A prospective study during the 2023 African Youth Under 18/20 Athletics Championships.

Objectives: To describe athletes' coverage by national medical teams, and injuries and illnesses occurring during the four weeks before and during the 2023 African Youth Under 18/20 Athletics Championships.

Design: Cross-sectional and prospective cohort study design.

Methods: We conducted a study with data collection of: 1) national medical teams, 2) injury and illness complaints during the four weeks preceding the championships using an online pre-participation health questionnaire, and 3) newly incurred in-championship injuries and illnesses collected by national medical teams and the local organising committee using daily standardised online report forms, for all registered athletes at the championships.

Normative Hamstrings and Quadriceps Isometric Strength Values and Hamstrings-Quadriceps Asymmetry in Healthy Collegiate Soccer and Basketball Players.

The objectives of this study were to report weight-normalized, sex- and sport-stratified normative values for hamstrings and quadriceps isometric strength in collegiate soccer and basketball players using a low-cost hand-held dynamometer and assess the prevalence of "substantial" hamstrings-quadriceps (H/Q) ratio strength imbalance (<0.6) among players. Ninety-four healthy collegiate male and female soccer and basketball players (age range: 18-24 years) were examined for baseline isometric hamstrings and quadriceps strength using a handheld isometric dynamometer with standardized and valid protocols.

Diversifying sport-related concussion measures with baseline balance and ocular-motor scores in professional Zambian football athletes.

Purpose: Normative values of common sport-related concussion assessment tools may assist clinical diagnosis and management. However, current baseline normative values are not representative of athletic participants across international domains. This study develops healthy baseline norms on the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), and King-Devick (K-D), providing baseline reference values for professional Zambian football athletes.

Cross-cultural exploration of baseline ImPACT Quick Test performance among football athletes in Zambia.

Objective: Concussion is a global sport injury; however, this public health issue has yet to be studied across Africa. It is unknown if tests such as the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT) Quick Test (QT) are culturally appropriate for implementation as part of a concussion screening protocol in Zambia or other African nations. Study objectives included: 1) establish that Zambian athletes are able to complete the iPad-based ImPACT QT with respect to language or cultural barriers that may exist, and 2) document baseline neurocognitive percentile ranks among Zambian football athletes on the ImPACT QT.