title: Clinical Implications of Hand Position and Lower Limb Length Measurement Method on Y-Balance Test Scores and Interpretations

authors: Hébert-Losier, Kim

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Context: 
The Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test (LQ-YBT) was developed to provide an effective and efficient screen for injury risk in sports. Earlier protocol recommendations for the LQ-YBT involved the athlete placing the hands on the hips and the clinician normalizing scores to lower limb length measured from the anterior-superior iliac spine to the lateral malleolus. The updated LQ-YBT protocol recommends the athlete's hands be free moving and the clinician measure lower limb length to the medial malleolus.
Objective: 
To investigate the effect of hand position and lower limb length measurement method on LQ-YBT scores and their interpretation.
Design: 
Cross-sectional study.
Setting: 
National Sports Institute of Malaysia.
Patients or Other Participants: 
A total of 46 volunteers, consisting of 23 men (age = 25.7 ± 4.6 years, height = 1.70 ± 0.05 m, mass = 69.3 ± 9.2 kg) and 23 women (age = 23.5 ± 2.5 years, height = 1.59 ± 0.07 m, mass = 55.7 ± 10.6 kg).
Intervention(s): 
Participants performed the LQ-YBT with hands on hips and hands free to move on both lower limbs.
Main Outcome Measure(s): 
In a single-legged stance, participants reached with the contralateral limb in each of the anterior, posteromedial, and posterolateral directions 3 times. Maximal reach distances in each direction were normalized to lower limb length measured from the anterior-superior iliac spine to the lateral and medial malleoli. Composite scores (average of the 3 normalized reach distances) and anterior-reach differences (in raw units) were extracted and used to identify participants at risk for injury (ie, anterior-reach difference ≥4 cm or composite score ≤94%). Data were analyzed using paired t tests, Fisher exact tests, and magnitude-based inferences (effect size [ES], ±90% confidence limits [CLs]).
Results: 
Differences between hand positions in normalized anterior-reach distances were trivial (t91 = −2.075, P = .041; ES = 0.12, 90% CL = ±0.10). In contrast, reach distances were greater when the hands moved freely for the normalized posteromedial (t91 = −6.404, P < .001; ES = 0.42, 90% CL = ±0.11), posterolateral (t91 = −6.052, P < .001; ES = 0.58, 90% CL = ±0.16), and composite (t91 = −7.296, P < .001; ES = 0.47, 90% CL = ±0.11) scores. A similar proportion of the cohort was classified as at risk with the hands on the hips (35% [n = 16]) and the hands free to move (43% [n = 20]; P = .52). However, the participants classified as at risk with the hands on the hips were not all categorized as at risk with the hands free to move and vice versa. The lower limb length measurement method exerted trivial effects on LQ-YBT outcomes.
Conclusions: 
Hand position exerted nontrivial effects on LQ-YBT outcomes and interpretation, whereas the lower limb length measurement method had trivial effects.

text: Clinical Implications of Hand Position and Lower Limb Length Measurement Method on Y-Balance Test Scores and Interpretations Context: 
The Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test (LQ-YBT) was developed to provide an effective and efficient screen for injury risk in sports. Earlier protocol recommendations for the LQ-YBT involved the athlete placing the hands on the hips and the clinician normalizing scores to lower limb length measured from the anterior-superior iliac spine to the lateral malleolus. The updated LQ-YBT protocol recommends the athlete's hands be free moving and the clinician measure lower limb length to the medial malleolus.
Objective: 
To investigate the effect of hand position and lower limb length measurement method on LQ-YBT scores and their interpretation.
Design: 
Cross-sectional study.
Setting: 
National Sports Institute of Malaysia.
Patients or Other Participants: 
A total of 46 volunteers, consisting of 23 men (age = 25.7 ± 4.6 years, height = 1.70 ± 0.05 m, mass = 69.3 ± 9.2 kg) and 23 women (age = 23.5 ± 2.5 years, height = 1.59 ± 0.07 m, mass = 55.7 ± 10.6 kg).
Intervention(s): 
Participants performed the LQ-YBT with hands on hips and hands free to move on both lower limbs.
Main Outcome Measure(s): 
In a single-legged stance, participants reached with the contralateral limb in each of the anterior, posteromedial, and posterolateral directions 3 times. Maximal reach distances in each direction were normalized to lower limb length measured from the anterior-superior iliac spine to the lateral and medial malleoli. Composite scores (average of the 3 normalized reach distances) and anterior-reach differences (in raw units) were extracted and used to identify participants at risk for injury (ie, anterior-reach difference ≥4 cm or composite score ≤94%). Data were analyzed using paired t tests, Fisher exact tests, and magnitude-based inferences (effect size [ES], ±90% confidence limits [CLs]).
Results: 
Differences between hand positions in normalized anterior-reach distances were trivial (t91 = −2.075, P = .041; ES = 0.12, 90% CL = ±0.10). In contrast, reach distances were greater when the hands moved freely for the normalized posteromedial (t91 = −6.404, P < .001; ES = 0.42, 90% CL = ±0.11), posterolateral (t91 = −6.052, P < .001; ES = 0.58, 90% CL = ±0.16), and composite (t91 = −7.296, P < .001; ES = 0.47, 90% CL = ±0.11) scores. A similar proportion of the cohort was classified as at risk with the hands on the hips (35% [n = 16]) and the hands free to move (43% [n = 20]; P = .52). However, the participants classified as at risk with the hands on the hips were not all categorized as at risk with the hands free to move and vice versa. The lower limb length measurement method exerted trivial effects on LQ-YBT outcomes.
Conclusions: 
Hand position exerted nontrivial effects on LQ-YBT outcomes and interpretation, whereas the lower limb length measurement method had trivial effects.

year: 2017-10-01

title: Imperial landscapes of health: Place, plants and people between India and Australia, 1800s-1900s.

authors: Beattie, James John

subjects: Imperial health

abstract: In the nineteenth century, place bore immediately and urgently on questions of imperialism, race, and health. This article considers European strategies to control local environments and improve healthiness through the exchange of people, plants, ideas and garden designs between India and Australia. Migration removed Europeans from unhealthy environments, either permanently (to Australia and elsewhere) or temporarily (to hill stations in India). Trees like the eucalyptus were introduced into India to enhance European health, based on belief they drained sources of disease. I argue a crucial new understanding of the intersection between health and place in the nineteenth-century British Empire can be provided by tracing the networks through which people, plants, and ideas moved to consider the broader imperial frameworks.

text: Imperial landscapes of health: Place, plants and people between India and Australia, 1800s-1900s. In the nineteenth century, place bore immediately and urgently on questions of imperialism, race, and health. This article considers European strategies to control local environments and improve healthiness through the exchange of people, plants, ideas and garden designs between India and Australia. Migration removed Europeans from unhealthy environments, either permanently (to Australia and elsewhere) or temporarily (to hill stations in India). Trees like the eucalyptus were introduced into India to enhance European health, based on belief they drained sources of disease. I argue a crucial new understanding of the intersection between health and place in the nineteenth-century British Empire can be provided by tracing the networks through which people, plants, and ideas moved to consider the broader imperial frameworks.

year: 2012

title: Identifying fisheries regions in New Zealand: Some conceptual difficulties

authors: Rennie, Hamish Gordon

subjects: Fisheries

abstract: The importance of fisheries to nations is reflected in the production and employment statistics of the country. It is also reflected in socio-cultural symbols (for instance songs, tales), and in socio-political hegemonies.  Just as these may vary from one nation to another, they may also vary from region to region within a nation.  Several nations speak openly in terms of 'fisheries regions' and there have been a number of attempts to identify such regions in the social science literature. An understanding of these regions is seen as step towards defining appropriate policies for the sustainable management of their resources.

In 1986, New Zealand established an innovative fishery management system based on individually transferable quota (ITQ), and subsequently removed the (never-implemented) region-based, fishery management planning structure from the statutes.  These changes might be indicative of a loss of geography, a flattening of the nation's "fishing topography", and might be expected to result in significant changes to the nature and location of fisheries regions.

This paper outlines the changes in the management structure of New Zealand's fisheries. We then attempt a preliminary analysis of fisheries regions in New Zealand as the basis for a "new regional" geography of New Zealand's fisheries. In the process we discuss various criteria for defining fishery regions and present our initial categorisation of New Zealand into those regions. The relationship between these regions and related institutional structures is then discussed. This raises a number of additional questions regarding the concept of a fisheries region, especially in the context of a resurgent indigenous (Maaori) culture, the emergence of new fishing peoples in New Zealand, and the respective size of recreational and commercial fishing sectors.

text: Identifying fisheries regions in New Zealand: Some conceptual difficulties The importance of fisheries to nations is reflected in the production and employment statistics of the country. It is also reflected in socio-cultural symbols (for instance songs, tales), and in socio-political hegemonies.  Just as these may vary from one nation to another, they may also vary from region to region within a nation.  Several nations speak openly in terms of 'fisheries regions' and there have been a number of attempts to identify such regions in the social science literature. An understanding of these regions is seen as step towards defining appropriate policies for the sustainable management of their resources.

In 1986, New Zealand established an innovative fishery management system based on individually transferable quota (ITQ), and subsequently removed the (never-implemented) region-based, fishery management planning structure from the statutes.  These changes might be indicative of a loss of geography, a flattening of the nation's "fishing topography", and might be expected to result in significant changes to the nature and location of fisheries regions.

This paper outlines the changes in the management structure of New Zealand's fisheries. We then attempt a preliminary analysis of fisheries regions in New Zealand as the basis for a "new regional" geography of New Zealand's fisheries. In the process we discuss various criteria for defining fishery regions and present our initial categorisation of New Zealand into those regions. The relationship between these regions and related institutional structures is then discussed. This raises a number of additional questions regarding the concept of a fisheries region, especially in the context of a resurgent indigenous (Maaori) culture, the emergence of new fishing peoples in New Zealand, and the respective size of recreational and commercial fishing sectors.

year: 1998-06-01