Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA.
, 10735 FM 2668, Bay City, TX, 77414, USA.
Sports Med. 2018 Apr;48(4):991-1008. doi: 10.1007/s40279-017-0799-7.
The Tanner-Whitehouse radius-ulna-short bone protocol (TW2 RUS) for the assessment of skeletal age (SA) is widely used to estimate the biological (skeletal) maturity status of children and adolescents. The scale for converting TW RUS ratings to an SA has been revised (TW3 RUS) and has implications for studies of youth athletes in age-group sports.
The aim of this study was to compare TW2 and TW3 RUS SAs in an international sample of male youth soccer players and to compare distributions of players by maturity status defined by each SA protocol.
SA assessments with the TW RUS method were collated for 1831 male soccer players aged 11-17 years from eight countries. RUS scores were converted to TW2 and TW3 SAs using the appropriate tables. SAs were related to chronological age (CA) in individual athletes and compared by CA groups. The difference of SA minus CA with TW2 SA and with TW3 SA was used to classify players as late, average, or early maturing with each method. Concordance of maturity classifications was evaluated with Cohen's Kappa coefficients.
For the same RUS score, TW3 SAs were systematically and substantially reduced compared with TW2 SAs; mean differences by CA group ranged from - 0.97 to - 1.16 years. Kappa coefficients indicated at best fair concordance of TW2 and TW3 maturity classifications. Across the age range, 42% of players classified as average with TW2 SA were classified as late with TW3 SA, and 64% of players classified as early with TW2 SA were classified as average with TW3 SA.
TW3 SAs were systematically lower than corresponding TW2 SAs in male youth soccer players. The differences between scales have major implications for the classification of players by maturity status, which is central to some talent development programs.
Tanner-Whitehouse 桡骨-尺骨-短骨评分法（TW2 RUS）被广泛用于评估骨骼年龄（SA），以评估儿童和青少年的生物（骨骼）成熟度。TW RUS 评分转换为 SA 的量表已经修订（TW3 RUS），这对年龄组运动中青少年运动员的研究有影响。
本研究旨在比较国际男足球员中 TW2 和 TW3 RUS SA，并比较两种 SA 协议定义的成熟度状态下的球员分布。
从八个国家收集了 1831 名 11-17 岁男性足球运动员的 TW RUS 方法 SA 评估结果。使用适当的表格将 RUS 评分转换为 TW2 和 TW3 SA。SA 与个体运动员的实际年龄（CA）相关，并按 CA 组进行比较。使用 TW2 和 TW3 SA 分别计算 SA 与 CA 的差值，以将运动员分类为晚熟、平均和早熟。使用 Cohen's Kappa 系数评估成熟度分类的一致性。
对于相同的 RUS 评分，TW3 SA 与 TW2 SA 相比系统地和实质性地降低；按 CA 组的平均差异范围为-0.97 至-1.16 年。Kappa 系数表明 TW2 和 TW3 成熟度分类的一致性最好为中等。在整个年龄范围内，42%的 TW2 SA 平均成熟度分类的运动员被 TW3 SA 分类为晚熟，64%的 TW2 SA 早熟成熟度分类的运动员被 TW3 SA 分类为平均成熟度。
在男足球运动员中，TW3 SA 系统地低于相应的 TW2 SA。两种量表之间的差异对运动员的成熟度状态分类有重大影响，这对一些人才发展计划至关重要。
