title: Development and validation of the Sports Athlete Foot and Ankle Score: an instrument for sports-related ankle injuries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many existing scoring systems assess ankle function, but there is no evidence that any of them has been validated in a group of patients with a higher demand on their ankle function. Problems include ceiling effects, not being able to detect change or they do not contain a sports-subscale. The aim of this study was to create a validated self-administered scoring system for ankle injuries in the higher performing athlete.
  
  
  METHODS
  First, 26 patients were interviewed to solicit opinions needed to create the final score, which is modified from the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS). Second, SAFAS was validated in a group of 25 athletes with and 14 athletes without ankle injury. It is a self-administered region specific sports foot and ankle score that contains four subscales assessing the levels of symptoms, pain, daily living and sports.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Spearman correlation coefficients between SAFAS and the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) ranged from 0.78 to 0.88. Content validity is established by key informant interviews, expert opinions and a high satisfaction rate of 75%. Cronbach's alpha indicated good internal consistency of each subscale ranging from 0.77 to 0.92.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SAFAS has shown good evidence for being a valid instrudent for assessing sports-related ankle injuries in high-performing athletes.
authors.affiliation: Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M L A
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Morssinkhof
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: H J L
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: van der Heide
authors.forename: I G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Winson
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016512:Ankle Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D056352:Athletes; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005528:Foot / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ankle; Athletes; Injury; Scoring system; Sports