Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 17;7(4):CNC99.
doi: 10.2217/cnc-2022-0005. eCollection 2022 Dec.

A pilot case crossover study of the use of padded headgear in junior Australian football

Catherine Willmott  1   2 , Jonathan Reyes  1   2 , Jack V K Nguyen  1 , Andrew McIntosh  3   4   5 , Jennifer Makovec-Knight  1 , Michael Makdissi  6   7 , Patrick Clifton  8 , Peter Harcourt  8 , Biswadev Mitra  9   10   11
Affiliations

A pilot case crossover study of the use of padded headgear in junior Australian football

Catherine Willmott et al. Concussion. .

Abstract

Aim: To explore soft-shell padded headgear (HG) use, player behavior and injuries associated with HG in junior Australian football.

Methods: Prospective case-crossover with head impact measurement, injury surveillance and video review.

Results: 40 players (mean age: 12.43 years, standard deviation: 1.36) across 15 matches were observed. Frequency of head/neck (p = 0.916) or body (p = 0.883) contact events, and match incidents were similar between HG and no HG conditions. Without HG, females had higher frequency of body contacts compared with males (p = 0.015). Males sustained more body contacts with HG than without HG (p = 0.013).

Conclusion: Use of HG in junior football was not associated with injury or head contact rate. Associations between HG use and body contact may differ across sexes. (ID: ACTRN12619001165178).

Keywords: behavior; headgear; injury surveillance; mild traumatic brain injury; sport-related concussion; youth football.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Soft-padded headgear utilised in this study.
(A) Front–side view. (B) Front view.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Participant and data flowchart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Makovec Knight J, Mitra B, McIntosh A et al. Padded headgear in junior and youth Australian football: player insights from a national survey. Clin. J. Sport Med. In Press (2022). - PubMed
    1. McIntosh AS, McCrory P, Finch C, Best J, Chalmers D, Wolfe R. Does padded headgear prevent head injury in rugby union football? Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 41(2), 306 (2009). - PubMed
    1. Archbold HA, Rankin AT, Webb M et al. RISUS study: Rugby Injury Surveillance in Ulster Schools. Br. J. Sports Med. 51(7), 600–606 (2017). - PubMed
    1. Delaney JS, Al-Kashmiri A, Drummond R, Correa JA. The effect of protective headgear on head injuries and concussions in adolescent football (soccer) players. Br. J. Sports Med. 42(2), 110–115 discussion 115 (2008). - PubMed
    1. McGuine T, Post E, Pfaller AY et al. Does soccer headgear reduce the incidence of sport-related concussion? A cluster, randomised controlled trial of adolescent athletes. Br. J. Sports Med. 54(7), 408–413 (2020). - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources