Interpreting Scores from Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on Sway Medical System Balance and...

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Neuroscience
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Preseason baseline cognitive and balance testing is common in US high schools for concussion management.
• Previous studies indicate cognitive and balance score differences between youth with and without ADHD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if preseason baseline scores on the Sway Medical System differ between adolescent athletes with and without self-reported ADHD.
• To assess the clinical significance of these potential differences.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 23,566 adolescents (ages 14-18) who completed baseline Sway Medical System cognitive and balance tests in summer 2022.
• Analyzed scores from cognitive and balance modules, comparing athletes with self-reported ADHD to those without.

Main Results:

• Adolescents with ADHD scored slightly lower on all four cognitive tests and the balance test compared to their peers.
• The observed differences were statistically significant (p<.001) but had very small-to-small effect sizes (r=0.04-0.07).

Conclusions:

• Self-reported ADHD in adolescents is associated with slightly lower Sway Medical System cognitive and balance scores.
• Effect sizes suggest limited clinical significance, potentially indicating that ADHD status may not require separate stratification in current normative data.
• Future research could explore specific ADHD subgroups with potentially larger score variations.