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Factors Affecting Head Impact Exposure in College Football Practices: A Multi-Institutional Study

  • Special Issue on the NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium Research
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Abstract

Biomechanical data collected from head impacts in football have been used to characterize exposure and predict injury risk. This study sought to specifically quantify the factors that contribute towards player head impact exposure in college football practices. All players included in this study were outfitted with football helmets instrumented with accelerometer arrays (Head Impact Telemetry System). Head impact exposure was defined by the number of head impacts each player experienced in practice, the number of practice head impacts normalized by the number of practice sessions (practice head impact rate), and the 95th percentile linear and rotational resultant head impact accelerations. Practice head impact rate was observed to vary significantly with player position (p < 0.0001; η2 = 0.46), team (p = 0.0016; η2 = 0.03), and the number of game impacts (p < 0.0001; η2 = 0.03), which served as a correlate for player ability. Even after controlling for practice participation, player position, team, and ability, differences between individuals accounted for 48% of the variance in head impact exposure in practice. This work demonstrates the importance of considering head impact exposure on a subject-specific basis rather than estimating head impact exposure from aggregate data.

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Acknowledgments

This investigation was made possible, in part, with support from the Grand Alliance Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium, funded, by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). The U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity is the awarding and administering acquisition office. This work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Program under Award NO W81XWH-14-2-0151. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense (DHP funds). The authors thank the following investigators: Christopher Giza and John DiFiori (University of California Los Angeles), Kevin Guskiewicz (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Darren Campbell and Gerald McGinty (United States Air Force Academy), and Steven Svoboda (United States Military Academy). The authors thank the on-field HITS operators at each site: Julia Ford and Corey Rodrigo (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Gus Hendricks and Max Zeiger (University of California Los Angeles [UCLA]), Quinn Lukens (University of Wisconsin), Brett Griesemer (Virginia Tech), Dom Calhoun (Air Force), and Sean Roach (West Point).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Eamon T. Campolettano, Steven Rowson & Stefan M. Duma

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Brian Stemper, Alok Shah & Michael McCrea

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Jaroslaw Harezlak & Larry D. Riggen

  4. Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Center, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Jason Mihalik

  5. Department of Orthopedics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Alison Brooks

  6. John A. Feagin Jr. Sports Medicine Fellowship, Keller Army Hospital, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, USA

    Kenneth Cameron

  7. Departments of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics, UCLA Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Program, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Christoper C. Giza

  8. Department of Psychiatry, Indiana School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Thomas McAllister

  9. School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Steven P. Broglio

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  1. Eamon T. Campolettano
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  2. Steven Rowson
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  9. Alison Brooks
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  10. Kenneth Cameron
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  11. Christoper C. Giza
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  13. Steven P. Broglio
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  14. Michael McCrea
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Correspondence to Eamon T. Campolettano.

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Associate Editor Joel Stitzel oversaw the review of this article.

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Campolettano, E.T., Rowson, S., Duma, S.M. et al. Factors Affecting Head Impact Exposure in College Football Practices: A Multi-Institutional Study. Ann Biomed Eng 47, 2086–2093 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-019-02309-x

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