Evaluating Patient Reported Outcomes in a Pediatric Sports Medicine Practice: A Look at the FAAM

Abstract

PURPOSE: Foot and ankle injuries account for up to 30% of all pediatric sports medicine visits. Self-reported outcome measures can be utilized to capture the patient’s perspectives on their injury and monitor recovery, however, this has not been well studied in youth athletics. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between patient injury characteristics and FAAM scores. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional pilot study was conducted on patients that completed the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) survey as standard of care for either their first clinic or physical therapy visit. Factors of interest include age, sex, diagnosis and type of rehabilitation program. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression models were performed. RESULTS: In this pilot study, 457 individuals were identified as having completed the FAAM over the 3 year review period. A sample of 36 patients with 42 distinctive injuries were reviewed. The average age of the sample was 16.38 years, 53% were female. Only 8 athletes (22%) identified as participating in multiple sports. Soft tissue injury was the most common diagnosis (65% of encounters) and more than half of the patients were referred to physical therapy. The average time from injury to presentation was 63 days (RNG: 1-694 days). The average initial FAAM score was 0.52 (SD ± 0.28, RNG: 0.03-0.96). Multiple linear regression models showed no significant predictors. Only time from injury to initial FAAM score approached a p-value of 0.10. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the FAAM may provide insight into patient perception of function and recovery from a musculoskeletal injury. Our study unveils characteristics of one cohort of adolescents from a pediatric sports medicine clinic with foot and ankle injuries. Time to presentation was significantly longer than expected but perceived level of dysfunction was higher. The multiple linear regression models showed no strong predictors of FAAM scores, however, this pilot study was underpowered. Future efforts will focus on further evaluation of this entire cohort and the interaction between injury characteristics, management recommendations, and FAAM scores.