ArticleSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2018
Tanner-Whitehouse Skeletal Ages in Male Youth Soccer Players: TW2 or TW3?
Article in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Methods to predict the timing and status of biological maturation in male adolescent soccer players: A narrative systematic review.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Skeletal Age Evaluation with BAUSportJournal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Article
- Growth, maturity status and performance of youth soccer players by playing status as adults.Biology of sport · 2026Article
- Does Birth Month Matter? Effects of Birth Subgroupings on Motor Performance and Ball-Involving Tests in a Youth Soccer Academy.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Influence of Biological Maturation on the Career Trajectory of Football Players: Does It Predict Elite Success?Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Assessment of Biological Age With Conventional Ultrasound Imaging as an Alternative to X-Ray-A Pilot Study in Youth Soccer.European journal of sport science · 2025Article
- Inter-rater variability and repeatability in the assessment of the Tanner-Whitehouse classification of hand radiographs for the estimation of bone age.Skeletal radiology · 2024Article
- Influence of body size and skeletal maturity status on strength and motor performances of soccer players 9-16 years.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Comparison of classical methods for bone age determination with Capitohamate planimetry on wrist X-rays.Turkish journal of medical sciences · 2024Article
- An Automated TW3-RUS Bone Age Assessment Method with Ordinal Regression-Based Determination of Skeletal Maturity.Journal of digital imaging · 2023Article
- Tanner-Whitehouse skeletal maturity score derived from ultrasound images to evaluate bone age.European radiology · 2023Article
- A real-time automated bone age assessment system based on the RUS-CHN method.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Growth until Peak Height Velocity Occurs Rapidly in Early Maturing Adolescent Boys.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- Physical characteristics of elite youth male football players aged 13-15 are based upon biological maturity.PeerJ · 2022Article
- Characteristics of select and non-select U15 male soccer players.Biology of sport · 2021Article
- Bio-Banding in Youth Sports: Background, Concept, and Application.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2019Review
- Cross-Sectional Analysis Investigating the Concordance of Maturity Status Classifications in Elite Caucasian Youth Tennis Players.Sports medicine - open · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
12 authors at 9 institutions in 8 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe 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.
objectivesThe 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.
methodsSA 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.
resultsFor 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.
conclusionTW3 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.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.