Head impact exposure and sport-related concussions (SRCs) – accelerometry data to the rescue

Music City Center 

Sport-related concussions (SRCs) are a significant public health problem resulting in over 200,000 annual trips to the Emergency Departments in the United States. From a biomechanical standpoint, the concussion mechanism includes head impact resulting in high magnitude head linear and rotational accelerations. Mounting evidence from human studies has demonstrated that repetitive head impact exposure (HIE) contributes to decreased SRC tolerance in contact sport athletes. However, studies focusing on quantifying the relationship between the HIE and incident concussion have suffered from simplistic statistical methods utilized.
In our research, we use head impact telemetry (HIT) system accelerometry 1,000Hz high-frequency time series data from the NCAA-DoD Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium (CARE) study to determine the association of HIE with the SRC incidence and post-SRC recovery based on the multiple characteristics of the recorded head impacts. We utilize a scalar-on-function regression approach to determine the most important head impact features as well as their time-varying influence on the SRC.

Accelerometry data