Head Impact Exposure Comparison Between Male and Female Amateur Rugby League Participants Measured With an Instrumented Patch

Date
2019
Authors
King, D
Hume, P
Cummins, C
Clark, T
Gissane, C
Hecimovich, M
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Heighten Science
Abstract

Background: Epidemiological studies report that females experience greater rates of concussion when compared with males. Biomechanical factors may result in greater post-impact head velocities and accelerations for a given force for females when compared with males.

Purpose: To quantify the magnitude, frequency, duration and distribution of impacts to the head and body in rugby league match activities for females versus males.

Design: Prospective descriptive epidemiological study.

Methods: 21 female and 35 male amateur rugby league players wore wireless impact measuring devices (X2Biosystems; xPatch) behind their right ear over the mastoid process during match participation across a single season. All impact data were collected and downloaded for further analysis.

Results: Male amateur rugby league players experienced more head impacts than female amateur rugby league players (470 ±208 vs. 184 ±18; t(12)=-3.7; p=0.0028; d=1.94) per-match over the duration of the study. Male amateur rugby league players recorded a higher median resultant Peak Linear Acceleration (PLA(g)) (15.4 vs. 14.6 g; F(824,834)=51.6; p<0.0001; t(1658)=-3.3; p=0.0012; d=0.10) but a lower median resultant Peak Rotational Acceleration (PRA(rad/s2) (2,802.3 vs. 2,886.3 rad/s2; F(831,827)=3.1; p<0.0001; t(1658)=5.7; p<0.0001; d=0.13) when compared with female amateur rugby league players

Conclusion: Females recorded lower median values for PLA(g) and Head Impact Telemetry severity profile (HITSP) for all positional groups but had a higher PRA(rad/s2) for Hit-up Forwards (HUF) and Outside Backs (OSB’s) when compared with male HUF and OSB’s. Females also recorded more impacts to the side of the head (48% vs. 42%) and had a higher 95th percentile resultant PRA(rad/s2) (12,015 vs. 9,523 rad/s2) to the top of the head when compared with male rugby league players.

Description
Keywords
Head impact biomechanics; Female athletes; Rugby league; xPatch
Source
Journal of Sports Medicine and Therapy. 2019; 4: 024-037. DOI: 10.29328/journal.jsmt.1001039
Rights statement
© 2019 King DA, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.