CORRELATIONS BETWEEN FUNCTIONAL TESTING AND THE PEDI-CHAMP© AGILITY TEST IN YOUTH ATHLETES

Abstract

Background: The Pediatric Comprehensive High-Level Activity Mobility Predictor (Pedi-CHAMP©) is a 4-part agility test which assesses balance, lateral agility, directional changes, and acceleration/deceleration. Designed to assess children with orthopedic conditions or sports medicine injuries, it is unclear if the agility assessed with the Pedi-CHAMP© correlates to other clinical performance measures in uninjured healthy youth athletes. Hypothesis/Purpose: To determine if the Pedi-CHAMP component (Single-Limb-Stance [SLS], modified Edgren Side Step [mESS], L-Test, Illinois Agility Test [IAT]) and composite scores are correlated to the Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test (LQ-YBT) and sprint speed. Methods: Uninjured youth athletes were recruited to undergo a battery of tests as part of the Specialized Athlete Functional Evaluation (SAFE) Program. Completion times for each component of Pedi-CHAMP© were converted to points using age-sex matched scoring algorithms. Each participant completed the LQ-YBT and a single repetition of 10m and 20m sprints. Spearman correlations assessed relationships between the Pedi-CHAMP© component and composite scores and the LQ-YBT components, LQ-YBT composite score, and sprint times. Results: Forty-two, right-leg dominant youth athletes (30F, age:13.9±2.6yrs; BMI:20.±3.1) completed functional testing. 62% of participants specialized in a single sport and 83% participated in high-impact sports. There were no significant correlations between the SLS component score and functional tests (Table 1). While the posteromedial and posterolateral components of the LQ-YBT showed significant, fair correlations to the mESS (PM:r=0.338, PL:r=0.379), L-Test (PL only:r=0.374), IAT (PM:r=0.307, PL:r=0.407) and Pedi-CHAMP© composite scores (PM:r=0.370, PL:r=0.361), the anterior component and LQ-YBT composite scores were not significantly correlated to the Pedi-CHAMP©. There were strong correlations between the 10m and 20m sprints and the mESS (10m:r=-0.660, 20m:r=-0.693), L-Test (10m:r=-0.663, 20m:r=-0.736), IAT (10m:r=-0.704, 20m:r=-0.693) and Pedi-CHAMP© composite score (10m:r=-0.617, 20m:r=-0.678, all p<0.001). Conclusion: Performance on the mESS, L-Test, and IAT components of the Pedi-CHAMP© correlated to sprint times and posterior components of the LQ-YBT. The SLS component of the Pedi-CHAMP© may not be challenging enough for the older youth athlete, as this simple 30sec single limb balance test was designed for children with injuries or underlying orthopedic conditions. Replacing the SLS with one or more LQ-YBT components may be more appropriate for uninjured youth, particularly elite athletes. It is not surprising that forward sprint speeds were highly correlated with the agility portions of the Pedi-CHAMP© in this cohort of relatively high-level youth athletes. Future work should focus on evaluating the ability of the Pedi-CHAMP© to detect differences based on sport. Tables/Figures: