Characterization of Head Impact Exposure in Women’s Collegiate Soccer
in Journal of Applied BiomechanicsBy purchasing this content you agree and accept the terms and conditions
Soccer players are regularly exposed to head impacts by intentionally heading the ball. Evidence suggests repetitive subconcussive head impacts may affect the brain, and females may be more vulnerable to brain injury than males. This study aimed to characterize head impact exposure among National Collegiate Athletic Association women’s soccer players using a previously validated mouthpiece-based sensor. Sixteen players were instrumented during 72 practices and 24 games. Head impact rate and rate of risk-weighted cumulative exposure were compared across session type and player position. Head kinematics were compared across session type, impact type, player position, impact location, and ball delivery method. Players experienced a mean (95% confidence interval) head impact rate of 0.468 (0.289 to 0.647) head impacts per hour, and exposure rates varied by session type and player position. Headers accounted for 89% of head impacts and were associated with higher linear accelerations and rotational accelerations than nonheader impacts. Headers in which the ball was delivered by a long kick had greater peak kinematics (all P < .001) than headers in which the ball was delivered by any other method. Results provide increased understanding of head impact frequency and magnitude in women’s collegiate soccer and may help inform efforts to prevent brain injury.
Filben, Pritchard, Miller, Woods, Hayden, Miles, Urban, and Stitzel are with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. Filben, Pritchard, Miller, Urban, and Stitzel are with the Virginia Tech–Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. Miles is also with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
Supplementary Materials
- Supplementary Figure S1 (PDF 203 KB)
- Supplementary Figure S2 (PDF 239 KB)
- Supplementary Figure S3 (PDF 299 KB)
- Supplementary Figure S4 (PDF 274 KB)
- Supplementary Figure S5 (PDF 258 KB)
- Supplementary Table S1 (PDF 10 KB)
- Supplementary Table S2 (PDF 17 KB)
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