Head Impact Exposure in Youth Football

Overview

Journal Ann Biomed Eng

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2012 Feb 22

PMID 22350665

Citations 76

Authors

Ray W Daniel

Steven Rowson

Stefan M Duma

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

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.

Citing Articles

Correlation of King-Devick Test and Helmet Impact Exposures Over a Youth Football Season.

Maynard J, Nadwodny J, Haak I, DeMatas K, Rosario-Concepcion R, Seemann L Sports Health. 2025; 19417381241309956.

PMID: 39834109 PMC: 11748126. DOI: 10.1177/19417381241309956.

Protocol for COACH, an evidence-based intervention for improved head impact safety in youth American football developed using a community-engaged approach.

Urban J, Moore J, Marks M, Holcomb T, Patterson R, McCoy A Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2024; 42:101371.

PMID: 39351080 PMC: 11440239. DOI: 10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101371.

On-Field Evaluation of Mouthpiece-and-Helmet-Mounted Sensor Data from Head Kinematics in Football.

Holcomb T, Marks M, Pritchard N, Miller L, Rowson S, Bullock G Ann Biomed Eng. 2024; 52(10):2655-2665.

PMID: 39058402 PMC: 11402845. DOI: 10.1007/s10439-024-03583-0.

Comparison of Kinematics for Head Impacts Initiated by Helmets and Shoulder Pads Among High School American Football Athletes.

Sinnott A, Collins C, Boltz A, Robison H, Pinapaka H, Mihalik J Ann Biomed Eng. 2024; 52(10):2678-2686.

PMID: 38507140 DOI: 10.1007/s10439-024-03485-1.

Leveraging football accelerometer data to quantify associations between repetitive head impacts and chronic traumatic encephalopathy in males.

Daneshvar D, Nair E, Baucom Z, Rasch A, Abdolmohammadi B, Uretsky M Nat Commun. 2023; 14(1):3470.

PMID: 37340004 PMC: 10281995. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39183-0.

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