Citation

Stemper BD, Harezlak J, Shah AS, Rowson S, Mihalik JP, Riggen L, Duma S, Pasquina P, Broglio SP, McAllister TW, McCrea MA. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1249/MSS.0000000000002874

PMID

35081093

Abstract

PURPOSE: Contact sport athletes are exposed to a unique environment where they sustain repeated head impacts throughout the season and can sustain hundreds of head impacts over a few months. Accordingly, recent studies outlined the role that head impact exposure (HIE) has in concussion biomechanics and in the development of cognitive and brain-based changes. Those studies focused on time-bound effects by quantifying exposure leading up to the concussion, or cognitive changes following a season in which athletes had high HIE. However, HIE may have a more prolonged effect. This study identified associations between HIE and concussion incidence during different periods of the college football fall season.

METHODS: This study included 1,120 athlete seasons from six NCAA Division I football programs across five years. Athletes were instrumented with the Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System to record daily head impact exposure. The analysis quantified associations of preseason/regular season/total season concussion incidence with HIE during those periods.

RESULTS: Strong associations were identified between HIE and concussion incidence during different periods of the season. Preseason HIE was associated with preseason and total season concussion incidence, and total season HIE was associated with total season concussion incidence.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate a prolonged effect of HIE on concussion risk, wherein elevated preseason HIE was associated with higher concussion risk both during the preseason but also throughout the entire fall season. This investigation is the first to provide evidence supporting the hypothesis of a relationship between elevated HIE during the college football preseason and a sustained decreased tolerance for concussion throughout that season.

Language: en