Objective To assess the effects of a contact or non-contact sport collegiate athletic career on gait performance.

Design Longitudinal.

Setting United State intercollegiate athletics.

Participants We recruited 23 student-athletes (17 Female) from contact (N=11: soccer, football, lacrosse) and non-contact (N=12: volleyball, swimming, track, softball) sports. Participants completed a gait assessment prior to their first year of collegiate athletics and again following their last season of collegiate athletics. Participants were excluded if they had an injury which restricted their gait performance at either test time, but not for concussion history.

Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) Gait performance was measured with an instrumented gait mat (Gaitrite) or portable accelerometer (APDM). There was no difference at either time point between devices.

Outcome Measures Mean gait velocity, step width and initial double support phase were assessed with a 2 (group) by 2 (time) repeated measures ANOVA.

Main Results There was no significant interaction for gait velocity (F=0.001, p=0.992), step width (F=0.372, p=0.550) or double support (F=0.001, P=0.984). There no significant main effects for time or group and both groups performance was highly consistent across the two time points (e.g., velocity: Non-Contact Sports pre: 1.29 m/s and post: 1.30 m/s; Contact Sports: pre: 1.30 m/s and post: 1.31 m/s).

Conclusions The results of this preliminary investigation suggest that participation in a collegiate athletic career does not affect gait performance. Longitudinal studies with larger populations are needed to assess the effects of a collegiate athletic career on neurological health across the lifespan.