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Clinical Trial
. 2012 Apr;40(4):976-81.
doi: 10.1007/s10439-012-0530-7. Epub 2012 Feb 15.

Head impact exposure in youth football

Ray W Daniel  1 , Steven Rowson, Stefan M Duma
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Head impact exposure in youth football

Ray W Daniel et al. Ann Biomed Eng. 2012 Apr.

Abstract

The head impact exposure for athletes involved in football at the college and high school levels has been well documented; however, the head impact exposure of the youth population involved with football has yet to be investigated, despite its dramatically larger population. The objective of this study was to investigate the head impact exposure in youth football. Impacts were monitored using a custom 12 accelerometer array equipped inside the helmets of seven players aged 7-8 years old during each game and practice for an entire season. A total of 748 impacts were collected from the 7 participating players during the season, with an average of 107 impacts per player. Linear accelerations ranged from 10 to 100 g, and the rotational accelerations ranged from 52 to 7694 rad/s(2). The majority of the high level impacts occurred during practices, with 29 of the 38 impacts above 40 g occurring in practices. Although less frequent, youth football can produce high head accelerations in the range of concussion causing impacts measured in adults. In order to minimize these most severe head impacts, youth football practices should be modified to eliminate high impact drills that do not replicate the game situations.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The helmets of youth football players were instrumented with the 6DOF head acceleration measurement device. Players wore instrumented helmets for every game and practice they participated in. Each time an instrumented player experienced a head impact, data were collected and then wirelessly transmitted to a computer on the sideline
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cumulative distribution functions for linear and rotational accelerations show that the distribution of impacts were right skewed and heavily weighted toward low magnitude impacts
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of helmet impact location distributions between youth, high school, and college football. Youth players impact the side of the helmets more and rear of their helmets less than high school and college players
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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