Citation

Corbin-Berrigan LA, Wagnac, Vinet SA, Charlebois-Plante C, Guay S, Beaumont LD. Concussion 2021; 6(3): CNC93.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, The Drake Foundation, Publisher Future Medicine)

DOI

10.2217/cnc-2020-0024

PMID

34408907

Abstract

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Canadians of all ages play American football at all levels, through various organizations [1]. Although the positive health effects of organized sports such as football are well known and reported [2], health issues associated with contact sports have received a lot of attention due to concussion incidence [3]. In fact, when it comes to concussion incidence among organized sports, football is at the top of the list [4]. It is estimated that 85% of Canadian university football players will have sustained at least one concussion in their sporting career [5]. In recent years, the scientific community has raised the concern that practicing this contact sport could lead to long-term sequelae on brain function, such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease of the brain, studied postmortem in a variety of contact sports players [6,7]. CTE research has led scientists to look above and beyond clinical history of concussion and to study head impacts from a broader perspective. A handful of researchers have linked head impact exposure, regardless of concussion occurrence, to alterations in cerebral structure and function in a variety of sports [8-12]. Many scientists agree that repeated head impacts could play a causative role for long-term deficits and neurodenegeration studied in retired athletes [13,14], such as CTE. [9,10]

Keywords: Canadian football .

Head impacts happen when the head undergoes a sudden change in speed (acceleration or deceleration, linear or rotational), such as when colliding with an opponent. These changes in speed (g units, m/s2) are recorded using accelerometers fixed to the head, or protective equipment, such as helmets. Previous studies have established that linear accelerations of magnitudes of 66, 82 and 98 to 106 g are associated with 25, 50 and 80% risks of concussion, respectively [15,16]. Accelerometers also allow for measurement of head injury criterion (HIC), a score used to assess the probability of brain injury in both sports and motor vehicle contexts [17].

To date, most available literature on head impact emerges from studies performed on National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football players in the US.

RESULTS have shown that over the course of a single football season, it is estimated that players are susceptible to sustain as many as 1400 head impacts [18]. These studies have demonstrated that player position and type of plays are also highly associated with linear impact occurrence and magnitude [19] where for example, linemen are susceptible to fewer head impacts than skill players [19,20]. Despite available literature emerging from the US, knowledge remains limited about the potential application of these findings to Canadian football players. Indeed, American and Canadian football greatly differ due to game rules and these differences may potentially affect the applicability of current head impact literature. Differences in play, such as field size, scrimmage line, number of players on the field and length of playing season [21,22], could possibly affect the interpretation of short- and long-term head impacts risks. To our knowledge, no information about Canadian varsity football head impacts is currently available. Hence, the aim of this study was to characterize head impact exposure in Canadian varsity football players during regular season games. It is hypothesized that head impacts measures collected within the Canadian varsity system will differ from published data emerging from the USA...

Language: en

Keywords

concussion; American football; head impact kinematics; head impacts; instrumented helmets; subconcussive head impacts