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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: To quantify the relationship between neck strength and sports-related concussion (SRC) for athletes participating in team sports.
DESIGN: Etiology systematic review with meta-analysis.
LITERATURE SEARCH: PubMed, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, CINAHL, CENTRAL, and Scopus were searched on 17(th) March 2022 and updated on 18(th) April 2023.
STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA: Team sports where an opponent invades the player's territory (e.g., American football, soccer, rugby, basketball, etc.,) that reported at least one measure of neck strength, and one measure of SRC incidence, using cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional study designs. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess risk of bias; certainty of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.
DATA SYNTHESIS: Studies were summarised qualitatively and quantitatively. To understand the relationship between neck strength and future SRC incidence, random-effect meta-analysis was conducted on prospective longitudinal studies.
RESULTS: From a total of 1,445 search results, eight studies including 7,625 participants met the inclusion criteria. Five studies reported a relationship between greater neck strength or motor control and reduced concussion incidence. Pooled results from four studies indicated small (r=0.08-0.14) non-significant effects with substantial heterogeneity (I(2)>90%). The considerable heterogeneity is likely a result of synthesized studies with vastly different sample characteristics, including participant age, playing level, and sports.
CONCLUSIONS: There was very low certainty evidence suggesting a small, non-significant relationship between greater neck strength and a lower risk of sustaining a SRC.
Language: en |