(D-124) Relating Athlete Perceptions of Contact to Head Impact Biomechanics in Youth Football

Introduction: There is widespread variability in head impact exposure (HIE) among youth football players. Environmental factors, such as practice drills and player position, influence HIE, but personal factors such as athlete attitudes and beliefs may also play a role.^1-3 Qualitative interviewing is a way to gain insight into youth athletes’ perspectives and experiences with football and may inform our understanding of HIE determinants.⁴ The objective of this study is to integrate quantitative head acceleration data measured on field with qualitative interviews and investigate variations in youth football athletes’ HIE.

Materials and Methods:: Thirteen athletes participating on one middle school level football team (ages 12-13) were instrumented with mouthpiece-based head acceleration sensors (event recording threshold of 5g) for one season. Head acceleration events were quantified by peak resultant linear acceleration, rotational velocity, and rotational acceleration. One time-synchronized camera was placed on the sideline at sessions to collect video data. All recorded events were individually video-verified by the research team to remove false-positive events from the analysis. The athletes also participated in individual interviews discussing their perspectives and experiences participating in youth football and perceptions of contact and “hard” hits, coaching, and safety in the sport. Interview data were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Rapid analysis was completed for all individual interviews, followed by full qualitative coding to identify themes.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: Over 2,500 head acceleration events were measured. For all head acceleration events (i.e., body collisions and head impacts) and head impacts, the median and 95th percentile peak resultant linear acceleration, angular velocity, and angular acceleration are listed in Table 1.

Three themes emerged from the individual athlete interviews. Athletes (1) expect “big hits” as part of participating in football, (2) described impacts to the head or helmet as feeling the “hardest”, and (3) expressed a desire for coaches to demonstrate drills and better explain what they can improve. One athlete noted, “Um, when somebody hits you in the head. Yeah, it hurts a little bit.” (Athlete 4).


Acknowledgements (Optional): : We thank the youth football organization for participating, and Tina Strates for assisting with this study. NIH NICHD (K25HD101686 and F31HD110224) and Wake Forest University School of Medicine Dean’s Award funded this study.

References (Optional): : [1] Kelley ME et al., J Neurosurg Pediatr, 23(3):381-389, 2018. [2] Marks ME et al., Sports, 10(8):115, 2022. [3] Marks ME et al., Ann Biomed Eng, 50(11):1620-1632, 2022. [4] Dicicco-Bloom B et al. Med Educ, 40(4):314-321, 2006.