Certified athletic trainers perceptions of lower limb injuries that occur on artificial turf versus natural grass

CONTEXT: There have been conflicting reports about whether artificial turf impacts lower limb injuries more compared to natural grass. Some research shows artificial turf to be safer while others have found it to be unsafe or have no difference compared to artificial turf. OBJECTIVE: The primary scope of this study is to determine if Certified Athletic Trainers' (ATC's) in the collegiate setting perceive a difference in lower limb injuries that occur on artificial turf versus natural grass. DESIGN: Descriptive Survey. SETTING: Population-Based Survey PARICIPANTS: 1000 randomly selected ATC's currently working in the collegiate setting. The final response rate was 269 with 163 utilized for data analysis. INTERVENTIONS: The dependent variable was the perceived relationship of lower limb injuries that occur on natural grass versus artificial turf by ATC'S. The independent variables included an Athletic Trainers' gender, years certified, collegiate governing body affiliation, and playing surface. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Perceived risk was measured with the following scale: -2= Significantly Lower Risk, -1= Moderately Lower Risk, 0= Same Amount of Risk, 1=Moderately Higher Risk, 2=Significantly Higher Risk. RESULTS: The overall perceived mean risk score of .199 was considered insignificant. The significance level from a one-way ANOVA between ATC's overall perceived mean risk score and a collegiate governing body was deemed insignificant at .685. A t-test was calculated comparing the mean risk scores between male Certified Athletic Trainers' and female Certified Athletic Trainers'. The results of the t-test showed the .056 significance level to be insignificant. A one-way ANOVA determined the number of years and Athletic Trainer to be certified did not play a role in altering their perceptions of lower limb injuries that occur on natural grass versus artificial turf. The significance level for this one-way ANOVA was .289. CONCLUSION: There were no significant differences found between Certified Athletic Trainers' perceptions of lower limb injuries that occur on artificial turf versus natural grass from different collegiate governing bodies, gender, years certified, NATA Districts, and sports. Based on the results of this study, we can conclude that Certified Athletic Trainers' have similar perceptions of lower limb injuries that occur on artificial turf versus natural grass.