Investigating the influence of head kinematics on head injury metrics and factors to consider for football helmet design

Abstract

There is a need to understand the relationship between head kinematics, impact severity metrics, and overall helmet performance as sports-related concussions continue to be prevalent. This study evaluates these relationships, emphasizing newly developed severity metrics that consider both translational and rotational contributions. Impact tests were performed following the NFL testing protocol on four prominent football helmets. The resulting data was used to determine Head Acceleration Response Metric (HARM), Diffuse Axonal Multi-Axis General Evaluation (DAMAGE), and Head Injury Criterion (HIC). HARM scores, a combination of HIC and DAMAGE, were ultimately used to solve for a Helmet Performance Score. When analyzing all impacts, DAMAGE showed a stronger correlation to HARM than HIC (R² = 0.76 vs R² = 0.57); however, the strongest correlation existed between peak resultant angular velocity (PRAV) and HARM (R² = 0.87). When examining impacts at only the side, side upper (SU), and oblique front (OF) locations grouped together, HIC demonstrated the strongest correlation to HARM in the study (R² = 0.96). PRAV was the best predictor for HARM over peak resultant linear acceleration (PRLA) and peak resultant angular acceleration for four of the six impact locations (C, D, FMCO, and FMS) when analyzing the sites individually. The remaining locations (SU and OF) best predicted HARM using PRLA. These results are presented and discussed to aid in the research, design, and development of football helmets.

Keywords

Concussion head injury criteria DAMAGE Helmet Performance Score HARM severity metrics football helmets FEA simulation American football traumatic brain injury TBI

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Makdissi

Darby

Maruff

, et al. Natural history of concussion in sport: markers of severity and implications for management. Am J Sports Med 2010; 38: 464–471.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nonfatal traumatic brain injuries from sports and recreation activities—United States, 2001-2005. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2007; 56: 733–737.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What is a concussion? https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/basics/concussion_whatis.html (2019, accessed 10 April 2022).

Frommer

Gurka

Cross

, et al. Sex differences in concussion symptoms of high school athletes. J Athl Train 2011; 46: 76–84.

Bailes

Patel

Farhat

, et al. Football fatalities: the first-impact syndrome. J Neurosurg Pediatr 2017; 19: 116–121.

D’Lauro

Johnson

McGinty

, et al. Reconsidering return-to-play times: a broader perspective on concussion recovery. Orthop J Sports Med 2018; 6: 2325967118760854.

Bohr

Aukerman

Harmon

, et al. Pac-12 CARE-affiliated program: structure, methods and initial results. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med 2021; 7: e001055.

Navarro

Sokunbi

Haeberle

, et al. Short-term outcomes following concussion in the NFL: a study of player longevity, performance, and financial loss. Orthop J Sports Med 2017; 5: 2325967117740847.

Roy

. Large decline in youth football raises questions, https://equipmentmanagers.org/large-decline-in-youth-football-raises-questions/ (2020, accessed 5 March 2022).

10.

National Football League. What is the head health initiative?https://www.nfl.com/playerhealthandsafety/health-and-wellness/medical-research/what-is-the-head-health-initiative (2016, 9 accessed March 2022).

11.

Pac-12 Conference. Projects selected for 2019 cycle of Pac-12 student-athlete health and well-being grant funding, https://pac-12.com/article/2019/04/21/projects-selected-2019-cycle-pac-12-student-athlete-health-and-well-being-grant (2019, accessed 9 March 2022).

12.

Gessel

LMFS

Collins

Dick

, et al. Concussions among United States high school and collegiate athletes. J Athl Train 2007; 42: 495–503.

13.

Tretter

. What’s good for the players is good for the game, https://nflpa.com/posts/whats-good-for-the-players-is-good-for-the-game (2021, accessed 9 March 2022).

14.

Clay

Glover

Lowe

. Epidemiology of concussion in sport: a literature review. J Chiropr Med 2013; 12: 230–251.

15.

Bergmann

Flood

Kreykes

, et al. Concussion among youth skiers and snowboarders: a review of the national trauma data bank from 2009 to 2010. Pediatr Emerg Care 2016; 32: 9–13.

16.

Elliott

Anderson

Collins

, et al. Sports-related concussion (SRC) assessment in road cycling: a systematic review and call to action. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med 2019; 5: e000525.

17.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What is a concussion?https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/basics/concussion_whatis.html (2019, accessed 9 March 2022).

18.

McIntosh

Patton

Fréchède

, et al. The biomechanics of concussion in unhelmeted football players in Australia: a case–control study. BMJ Open 2014; 4: e005078.

19.

Downey

Hutchison

Comper

. Determining sensitivity and specificity of the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 3 (SCAT3) components in university athletes. Brain Inj 2018; 32: 1345–1352.

20.

Harmon

Whelan

Aukerman

, et al. Diagnostic accuracy and reliability of sideline concussion evaluation: a prospective, case-controlled study in college athletes comparing newer tools and established tests. Br J Sports Med 2022; 56: 144–150.

21.

NOCSAE. Standard performance specification for newly manufactured football helmets. Performance Specification July 2021. NOCSAE, 2021.

22.

Mellander

. HIC—the head injury criterion. In: Modern concepts in neurotraumatology: first Scandinavian symposium on neurotraumatology (ed Lindgren

), Göteborg, Sweden, 20–23 May 1985. Vienna: Springer Vienna, 1986, pp.18–20.

23.

Gabler

Crandall

Panzer

. Development of a second-order system for rapid estimation of maximum brain strain. Ann Biomed Eng 2019; 47: 1971–1981.

24.

Bailey

Sanchez

Park

, et al. Development and evaluation of a test method for assessing the performance of American football helmets. Ann Biomed Eng 2020; 48: 2566–2579.

25.

Bian

Mao

. Mechanisms and variances of rotation-induced brain injury: a parametric investigation between head kinematics and brain strain. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 2020; 19: 2323–2341.

26.

Gabler

Crandall

Panzer

. Assessment of kinematic brain injury metrics for predicting strain responses in diverse automotive impact conditions. Ann Biomed Eng 2016; 44: 3705–3718.

27.

Takhounts

Craig

Moorhouse

, et al. Development of brain injury criteria (BrIC). Stapp Car Crash J 2013; 57: 243–266.

28.

Newman

. On the use of the head injury criterion (HIC) in protective headgear evaluation. Proc Stapp Car Crash Conf 1975; 19: 615–640.

29.

NOCSAE. ND-081-18am-19a. Standard pneumatic ram test method and equipment used in evaluating the performance characteristics of protective headgear and face guards. NOCSAE, 2021.

30.

Funk

Crandall

Wonnacott

, et al. NFL linear impactor helmet test protocol. Biocore. https://biocorellc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/NFL-linear-impact-helmet-test-protocol-20190325.pdf (2017, accessed 1 February 2019).

31.

SAE J211-1. Instrumentation for impact test - part 1 - electronic instrumentation. SAE paper SAE J211-1, 1995.

32.

Padgaonkar

Krieger

King

. Measurement of angular accelerations of a rigid body using linear accelerometers. J Appl Mech 1975; 42: 552–556.

33.

DiMasi

. Transformation of nine-accelerometer-package (NAP) data for replicating headpart kinematics and dynamic loading. US Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, USA, 1995.

34.

Gabler

Crandall

Panzer

. Development of a metric for predicting brain strain responses using head kinematics. Ann Biomed Eng 2018; 46: 972–985.

35.

Bailey

McMurry

Cormier

, et al. Comparison of laboratory and on-field performance of American football helmets. Ann Biomed Eng 2020; 48: 2531–2541.

36.

Sanchez

Gabler

Good

, et al. A reanalysis of football impact reconstructions for head kinematics and finite element modeling. Clin Biomech 2019; 64: 82–89.

37.

Pellman

Viano

Tucker

, et al. Concussion in professional football: reconstruction of game impacts and injuries. Neurosurgery 2003; 53: 799–814.

38.

Knowles

Dennison

. Predicting cumulative and maximum brain strain measures from HybridIII head kinematics: a combined laboratory study and post-hoc regression analysis. Ann Biomed Eng 2017; 45: 2146–2158.

39.

Yount

Jesunathadas

Plaisted

, et al. Performance of a novel football helmet technology on head impact kinematics. Sports Eng 2021; 24: 18.

40.

Mills

Young

Chatham

, et al. Effect of foam densification and impact velocity on the performance of a football helmet using computational modeling. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Eng 2021; 24: 21–32.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

2.88 MB