Identifying Factors Associated with Head Impact Kinematics and Brain Strain in High School American Football via Instrumented Mouthguards

Repeated head impact exposure and concussions are common in American football. Identifying the factors associated with high magnitude impacts aids in informing sport policy changes, improvements to protective equipment, and better understanding of the brain's response to mechanical loading. Recently, the Stanford Instrumented Mouthguard (MiG2.0) has seen several improvements in its accuracy in measuring head kinematics and its ability to correctly differentiate between true head impact events and false positives. Using this device, the present study sought to identify factors (e.g., player position, helmet model, direction of head acceleration, etc.) that are associated with head impact kinematics and brain strain in high school American football athletes. 116 athletes were monitored over a total of 888 athlete exposures. 602 total impacts were captured and verified by the MiG2.0's validated impact detection algorithm. Peak values of linear acceleration, angular velocity, and angular acceleration were obtained from the mouthguard kinematics. The kinematics were also entered into a previously developed finite element model of the human brain to compute the 95th percentile maximum principal strain. Overall, impacts were (mean +/- SD) 34.0 +/- 24.3 g for peak linear acceleration, 22.2 +/- 15.4 rad/s for peak angular velocity, 2979.4 +/- 3030.4 rad/s(2) for peak angular acceleration, and 0.262 +/- 0.241 for 95th percentile maximum principal strain. Statistical analyses revealed that impacts resulting in Forward head accelerations had higher magnitudes of peak kinematics and brain strain than Lateral or Rearward impacts and that athletes in skill positions sustained impacts of greater magnitude than athletes in line positions. 95th percentile maximum principal strain was significantly lower in the observed cohort of high school football athletes than previous reports of collegiate football athletes. No differences in impact magnitude were observed in athletes with or without previous concussion history, in athletes wearing different helmet models, or in junior varsity or varsity athletes. This study presents novel information on head acceleration events and their resulting brain strain in high school American football from our advanced, validated method of measuring head kinematics via instrumented mouthguard technology.

Automated summary

This study focused on the impact exposure in high school American football athletes using the Stanford Instrumented Mouthguard technology. Statistical analysis revealed that impacts resulting in Forward head accelerations had higher magnitudes of peak kinematics and brain strain than Lateral or Rearward impacts and that athletes in skill positions sustained impacts of greater magnitude than athletes in line positions. The 95th percentile maximum principal strain was significantly lower in high school football athletes compared to collegiate football athletes, regardless of concussion history, helmet models, or varsity status.