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Quantifying Youth Football Helmet Performance: Assessing Linear and Rotational Head Acceleration

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Abstract

Youth football helmet testing standards have served to largely eliminate catastrophic head injury from the sport. These standards, though, do not presently consider concussion and do not offer consumers the capacity to differentiate the impact performance of youth football helmets. This study adapted the previously developed Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk (STAR) equation for youth football helmet assessment. This adaptation made use of a youth-specific testing surrogate, on-field data collected from youth football players, and a concussion risk function developed for youth athletes. Each helmet is subjected to 48 laboratory impacts across 12 impact conditions. Peak linear head acceleration and peak rotational head acceleration values from each laboratory impact are aggregated into a single STAR value that combines player exposure and risk of concussion. This single value can provide consumers with valuable information regarding the relative performance of youth football helmets.

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Acknowledgments

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01NS094410. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors also appreciate the support of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Eamon T. Campolettano, Ryan A. Gellner, David W. Sproule, Mark T. Begonia & Steven Rowson

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  1. Eamon T. Campolettano
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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., Gellner, R.A., Sproule, D.W. et al. Quantifying Youth Football Helmet Performance: Assessing Linear and Rotational Head Acceleration. Ann Biomed Eng 48, 1640–1650 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-020-02505-0

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