Anthropometric Characteristics Of Relative Age Effects Among Division 1 Athletes

Document Type

Conference Presentation

Department

Health, Exercise, and Sport Sciences Department

Conference Title

American College of Sports Medicine - Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise conference

Organization

American College of Sports Medicine

Location

San Diego, CA

Date of Presentation

6-3-2022

Journal Publication

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

ISSN

0195-9131

DOI

10.1249/01.mss.0000879684.97458.3d

Volume

54

Issue

9S

First Page

368

Abstract

Athletes born earlier in the year may experience developmental advantages owing to eligibility cutoff dates in youth sports, typically January 1. Known as relative age effects (RAE), this phenomenon has been described in numerous athletic contexts; however, the proportional contributions of physical development and skill acquisition remain unknown. PURPOSE: To investigate the occurrence and anthropometric characteristics of RAE in collegiate athletes. METHODS: We tested 114 athletes (82 men, 32 women) representing 13 sports in a Division 1 athletics program in Northern California. Each subject was tested using the InBody 770 analyzer. We recorded height, weight, BMI, lean body mass, skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, body fat percentage, lean leg mass, arm circumference, and estimated basal metabolic rate. We tabulated birth months and assigned subjects to their designated quarters (January-March as the first quarter). Multivariate tests including sex as a between-subjects factor were used to identify differences in InBody outcomes based on birth month for the entire sample. Coarsened exact matching was conducted to create subset containing two groups; consisting of subjects born in first three (n = 21) and last three (n = 21) months, matched by sex and age. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to examine differences in anthropometric measurements between the two groups in the subset. RESULTS: Across the total sample, 30.7% of athletes were born between January and March; there was a significant difference between sports (p = 0.027) and a trending difference between sexes (p = 0.071). Males and females exhibited differences (p < 0.001) in every anthropometric outcome except BMI (p = 0.123). There were no differences observed in any variable by birth quarter (p > 0.100), but peak physical characteristics appeared to exist in the middle months. Independent samples t-tests on the matched subset identified no difference between athletes born in the first three months and those born in the last three months for all anthropometric measures (p > 0.300). CONCLUSIONS: Among a diverse set of collegiate sports, our results suggest the existence of RAE corresponding to a January 1 eligibility cutoff may be related more to additional skill acquisition than physical maturation.

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