Quantifying head impact biomechanical differences between commonly employed cleaning levels: a critical research interpretation consideration.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Wearable accelerometry devices quantify on-field frequency and severity of head impacts to further improve sport safety. Commonly employed post-data collection cleaning techniques may affect these outcomes. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to compare game impact rates and magnitudes between three different cleaning levels (Level-1 impacts recorded within start and end times, Level-2 impacts during pauses/breaks removed, Level-3 video verified) for male youth tackle football. METHODS: Participants (n = 23, age = 10.9 ± 0.3 yrs, height = 150.0 ± 8.3 cm, mass = 41.6 ± 8.4 kg) wore Triax SIM-G sensors throughout Fall 2019. Impact rates, ratios (IRRs), and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were used to compare levels. Random-effects general linear models were used to compare peak linear acceleration (PLA;g) and angular velocity (PAV;rads/s). RESULTS: Level-1 resulted in higher impact rates (4.57; 95%CI = 4.14-5.05) compared to Level-2 (3.09; 95%CI = 2.80-3.42; IRR = 1.48; 95%CI = 1.34-1.63) and Level-3 datasets (2.56; 95%CI = 2.30-2.85; IRR = 1.78; 95%CI = 1.60-1.98). Level-2 had higher impact rates compared to Level-3 (1.21; 95%CI = 1.08-1.35). Level-1 resulted in higher PAV than Level-2 and Level-3 (p < 0.001) datasets. PLA did not differ across datasets (p = 0.296). CONCLUSIONS: Head impact data should be filtered of pauses/breaks, and does not substantially differ outcome estimates compared to time-intensive video verification.