Head Impact Exposure in Youth Football: Evaluation of Practice Drills and Age and Weight Based Levels of Play

The estimated number of sport-related mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) occurring each year in the United States is 1.6 to 3.8 million with football having one of the highest rates of injury. Considerable research has been done to better understand concussions as well as quantifying head impact exposure sustained by a football athlete, but efforts have been mainly focused on the high school and collegiate population. More research is needed to study head impact exposure in the youth population as it makes up the largest proportion of football athletes in the U.S. with approximately 3.5 million participants. A small number of studies have begun to examine head impact exposure in youth football and have shown that youth football players sustain head impacts approaching the magnitude of high school and collegiate players, but these studies have been limited in size, scope, and duration. Additionally, recent clinical evidence reveals that football players can develop cognitive deficits and neurodegeneration later in life, which has been associated with repetitive head trauma. With millions of youth athletes participating in contact sports more research is needed to quantify exposure to repetitive head impacts and identify methods for reducing head impact exposure to make youth sports safer.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Kelley, Mireille Elizabeth

• biomechanics

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/62648

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/62648