Differences in Head Impact Exposures Between Youth Tackle and Flag Football Games and Practices
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Differences in Head Impact Exposures Between Youth Tackle and Flag Football Games and Practices

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English
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Details:

  • Alternative Title:
    Am J Sports Med
  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Background:

    Interventions designed to reduce the risk for head impacts and concussion in youth football have increased over the past decade; however, understanding of the role of regular game play on head impact exposure among youth tackle and flag football athletes is currently limited.

    Purpose:

    To explore head impact exposure among youth tackle and flag football athletes (age range, 6–14 years) during both practices and games.

    Study Design:

    Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2.

    Methods:

    Using the Vector MouthGuard sensor, the authors collected head impact data from 524 tackle and flag youth football athletes over the course of a football season. Quantities of interest were estimated from regression models using Bayesian methods.

    Results:

    For impacts ≥10g, a tackle football athlete had an estimated 17.55 (95% CI, 10.78–28.96) times more head impacts per practice compared with a flag football athlete (6.85 [95% CI, 6.05–7.76] and 0.39 [95% CI, 0.24–0.62] head impacts, respectively). Additionally, a tackle football athlete had an estimated 19.48 (95% CI, 12.74–29.98) times more head impacts per game compared with a flag football athlete (13.59 [95% CI, 11.97–15.41] and 0.70 [95% CI, 0.46–1.05] head impacts, respectively). Among tackle football athletes, the estimated average impact rate was 6.51 (95% CI, 5.75–7.37) head impacts during a practice and 12.97 (95% CI, 11.36–14.73) impacts during a game, resulting in 2.00 (95% CI, 1.74–2.29) times more ≥10g head impacts in games versus practices. Tackle football athletes had 2.06 (95% CI, 1.80–2.34) times more high-magnitude head impacts (≥40g) during a game than during a practice. On average, flag football athletes experienced an estimated 0.37 (95% CI, 0.20–0.60) head impacts during a practice and 0.77 (95% CI, 0.53–1.06) impacts during a game, resulting in 2.06 (95% CI, 1.29–3.58) times more ≥10g head impacts in games versus practices. Because of model instability caused by a large number of zero impacts for flag football athletes, a comparison of high-magnitude head impacts is not reported for practices or games.

    Conclusion:

    This study provides a characterization of the head impact exposure of practices and games among a large population of youth tackle and flag football athletes aged 6 to 14 years. These findings suggest that a greater focus on game-based interventions, such as fair play interventions and strict officiating, may be beneficial to reduce head impact exposures for youth football athletes.

  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • Source:
    Am J Sports Med. 49(8):2218-2226
  • Pubmed ID:
    33999722
  • Pubmed Central ID:
    PMC8335321
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • Funding:
    CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
  • Volume:
    49
  • Issue:
    8
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:

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