TY - JOUR T1 - Tracking developmental trajectories on neurocognitive testing in young athletes ages 5–12 JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - A21 LP - A22 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2016-097270.54 VL - 51 IS - 11 AU - Philip Schatz AU - Charles Ferris Y1 - 2017/06/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/11/A21.3.abstract N2 - Objective Despite increased attention to sports-related concussion, there is a lack of research on younger athletes. The purpose of this study was to establish developmental trajectories on neurocognitive testing in younger athletes ages 5 to 12.Design Pre-Test Only Design.Setting Multi-site study from numerous locations in the Eastern USA and Canada.Participants A total of 788 youth athletes, 73% male, assigned to groups on the basis of age: Ages 5–6 (N=128), Ages 7–8 (N=282), Ages 9–10 (N=284), Ages 11–12 (N=94).Intervention An iPad-based Paediatric version of the ImPACT test was administered individually to participants in a quiet office setting.Outcome measures Accuracy scores were documented on: Word List Learning (Immediate, Delayed, Recognition); and accuracy and timing scores on Design Rotation, Choice Reaction Time, Visual Sequencing and Visual Memory.Main results One-way ANOVAs with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, and Scheffé post-hoc comparisons were conducted between age groups on the dependent measures. All measures showed statistically significant changes (p< 0.001) across the developmental age groups, with better performance in older participants and lower performance in younger participants.Conclusions Youth athletes between the ages of 5 and 12 are underrepresented with respect to age-appropriate assessment measures, and these results document the need for developmentally- and age-appropriate measures and normative data, in order to capture neurocognitive change across developmental stages.Competing interests Dr. Schatz serves on the ImPACT Scientific Advisory Board.None. ER -