I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f N e u r o r e h a b i l i t a t i o n ISSN: 2376-0281 International Journal of Neurorehabilitation Weerasekara et al., Int J Neurorehabilitation Eng 2016, 3:3 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2376-0281.1000217 Open Access Research Article Volume 3 • Issue 3 • 1000217 Int J Neurorehabilitation ISSN: 2376-0281 IJN, an open access journal *Corresponding author: RMIM Weerasekara, Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, Tel: 94715530186; E-mail: isankweerasekara@yahoo.com Received June 27, 2016; Accepted June 29, 2016; Published June 30, 2016 Citation: Weerasekara RMIM, Banneheka BMHSK, Sivananthawerl T, Fahim ACM (2016) Awareness among School Athletes about “The Handling and Transferring Techniques of a Suspected Spinal Cord Injured Athlete”. Int J Neurorehabilitation 3: 217. doi:10.4172/2376-0281.1000217 Copyright: © 2016 Weerasekara RMIM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Keywords: Spinal cord injury; Awareness; First aid; Handling and transferring; School; Athlete; Sport injuries Introduction Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is a trauma to the spinal cord and cauda-equina, resulting in temporary or permanent sensory and/ or motor function loss below the level of lesion. Road traic accidents, falls from heights and violence are common causes of SCI [1]. Sport injuries including diving into shallow water, collapse of a rugby scrum [2] should not be neglected during the risk assessment. Even though spinal cord injury related sport is less common, still it carries a morbidity which limits the day today activities of an athlete [3]. Proper techniques in handling and transferring of the spinal cord injured patient immediately ater the trauma may prevent further neurological damage and resulting complications. As management of SCI should begin at the site of the injury, awareness of proper techniques of acute management would avoid the complications in injured patients [2]. Furthermore, increasing awareness should be focused as a preventive strategy to reduce the burden to the health resources [4]. Efective implementation of primary prevention strategies requires a considerable awareness level of proper handling and techniques at the injury site. Most commonly athletes start their sports career at school levels. herefore, raising the awareness at school level is important and readily implemented. To date, level of awareness among school athletes had not been evaluated specially in developing countries. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the awareness about proper handling and transferring techniques of patients with SCI among school athletes. Materials and Methods his is a cross-sectional study. List of national schools and formal approval for data collection at these schools were obtained from Zonal Educational Department, Kandy, Sri Lanka. Ten schools were selected randomly. Approval to conduct the study at each school was also obtained from the head of the institution. his study was approved Abstract Background: Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) among athletes frequently associated with temporary or permanent sensory and/or motor function loss below the level of lesion. This carries high morbidity which may limit the day to day activities. Awareness of proper techniques in early management of a spinal cord injured patients may limit complications. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the awareness about proper handling and transferring techniques of patient with a SCI among school athletes. Methods: Self-administered questionnaires with questions related to handling and transferring techniques of patient with a SCI were randomly distributed among school athletes (12-20 years) in Kandy (Sri Lanka) educational zone. Single total score representing the level of awareness was scored after evaluating the answers. These scores were then compared using Mann Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis to explore the awareness. Results: Among 243 of school athletes (Male, 50.2%; Female, 49.2%), Age: median=15, IQR=1) interviewed, overall mean awareness level score was 50.8% (17.9 ± SD). Conclusion: The awareness of proper handling of SCI patient did not differ in relation to gender, age, level of engagement in sports. Although overall awareness level of the questions based on handling and transferring techniques was moderate, there was an inadequate level of awareness regarding the handling of some important emergency situations. Awareness among School Athletes about “The Handling and Transferring Techniques of a Suspected Spinal Cord Injured Athlete” RMIM Weerasekara 1 *, BMHSK Banneheka 1 , T Sivananthawerl 2 and Fahim Mohamed 3 Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 2Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 3Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka by Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya (2012/EC/38). Self-administered questionnaires consisting of questions related to proper handling and transferring techniques of a spinal cord injured athlete were randomly distributed among 243 school athletes of 10 national schools (Appendix 1). Questions were prepared referring to the guidelines of recognised professional bodies [2,5,6]. General initial steps such as proper maintenance of stability of the neck/head and body, turning, liting, and transferring of the patient were interviewed during the study. Other safety techniques that should be considered during the event (sports) in the ield as injuries while wearing a helmet, while the players in water etc. were also questioned. Single total score representing the level of awareness, was given ater evaluating the answers given by each student for questions from 10-22 in the questionnaire (Appendix 1). hese score were compared according to the gender, age, level of engagement and duration of engaged period in sports. he categorical variables were summarised using percentage (%) while continuous variables were summarised using median with IQR and mean (± standard deviation) where appropriate. Mann Whitney test and Kruskal-Walli test were used to compare diferent variables since most variables were non-normally distributed.