Assessing Head Acceleration Events in Female Community Rugby Union Players: A Cohort Study Using Instrumented Mouthguards,Sports Medicine

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Assessing Head Acceleration Events in Female Community Rugby Union Players: A Cohort Study Using Instrumented Mouthguards
Sports Medicine ( IF 9.3 ) Pub Date : 2024-09-05 , DOI: 10.1007/s40279-024-02111-3
Melanie D Bussey ₁ , Danielle Salmon _{2,

3} , Bridie Nanai ₁ , Janelle Romanchuk _{1,

2} , Raul M Gomez ₁ , Darryl Tong _{1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6} , Gisela Sole _{1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

7} , Ross Tucker _{3,

4} , Éanna Falvey _{3,

5}

Affiliation

Background

The rapid growth of women's rugby union has underscored the need for female-specific player welfare protocols, particularly regarding the risk of head injuries. Instrumented mouthguards (iMGs) play a vital role in gathering comprehensive data on head acceleration events (HAEs), including their frequency, magnitude, and spatial distribution during games and training. By doing so, iMGs offer valuable context for circumstances in women's matches that may increase player risk.

Objectives

The study aimed to contextualize HAEs in female community rugby players using instrumented mouthguards and video review.

Methods

This prospective, observational cohort study involved 332 female rugby players across 38 matches and 80 training sessions during the 2021/2022 seasons. Players were representative of four playing grades: U13 (N = 9), U15 (N = 111), U19 (N = 95) and Premier women (N = 115). HAEs were recorded using boil-and-bite iMGs, with a single-axis recording threshold of 5 g. The incidence and prevalence of HAEs was expressed by grade, years of experience, playing positions, and session types (match or training). The effect of playing grade and previous playing experience on HAE propensity during tackles and rucks was also examined.

Results

Throughout the study, 9151 iMG events over 5 g were recorded, with 80% verified for analysis. Overall, the incidence rate (IR) was highest for HAEs between 10 and 29 g, 12–18 times higher than the IR for > 30-g events. Premier grade players had the highest weekly HAE load (26.2 per player per week) and the highest prevalence of players (49%) exposed to events over 30 g. An inverse relationship was found between years of rugby experience and peak angular acceleration (PAA) in U13–U19 players (p = 0.002, 95% CI [47,177 rads/s²]), showing that more experienced school-age players had lower rotational acceleration during HAEs. However, propensity for HAEs in tackle events was highest in Premier players with > 9 years of experience compared with U13–U19 grade players with similar years of experience (RR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.06–1.37; p = 0.004). Ball carries consistently resulted in the highest propensity of events over 30 g, regardless of playing grade or experience.

Conclusions

This research presents unique information regarding head accelerations that occur during women’s community rugby matches and practices. The results have significant implications for recognising populations that are at the highest risk of experiencing high cumulative and acute head accelerations. The findings may assist in managing training loads and instructing skill execution in high-risk activities, particularly for younger players who are new to the sport.

Consideration of playing grade, experience, and contact phases is crucial for understanding head acceleration exposure and injury risk in female rugby players. These insights can inform injury prevention strategies.

中文翻译：

评估女性社区橄榄球联盟运动员的头部加速事件：使用仪器护齿器的队列研究

背景

女子橄榄球联盟的快速发展凸显了针对女性球员福利协议的必要性，特别是在头部受伤风险方面。仪器化护齿套 (iMG) 在收集头部加速事件 (HAE) 的综合数据方面发挥着至关重要的作用，包括比赛和训练期间的频率、幅度和空间分布。通过这样做，iMG 为女子比赛中可能增加球员风险的情况提供了有价值的背景信息。

目标

该研究旨在使用仪器护齿器和视频回顾来了解女性社区橄榄球运动员中 HAE 的情况。

方法

这项前瞻性、观察性队列研究涉及 2021/2022 赛季的 332 名女橄榄球运动员，参加了 38 场比赛和 80 次训练。球员代表四个级别：U13（ N = 9）、U15（ N = 111）、U19（ N = 95）和Premier Women（ N = 115）。使用煮沸咬合 iMG 记录 HAE，单轴记录阈值为 5 g。 HAE 的发生率和患病率通过年级、经验年限、比赛位置和训练类型（比赛或训练）来表示。还检查了比赛成绩和之前的比赛经验对铲球和铲球期间 HAE 倾向的影响。

结果

在整个研究过程中，记录了 9151 个超过 5 g 的 iMG 事件，其中 80% 经过分析验证。总体而言，10 至 29 g 之间的 HAE 的发生率 (IR) 最高，比 > 30 g 事件的 IR 高 12-18 倍。高级级别球员的每周 HAE 负荷最高（每位球员每周 26.2 次），并且暴露于超过 30 g 的赛事的球员比例最高（49%）。在 U13-U19 球员中，橄榄球经验年数与峰值角加速度 (PAA) 之间存在负相关关系（ p = 0.002，95% CI [47,177 rads/s ² ]），这表明经验丰富的学龄球员的旋转速度较低HAE 期间的加速度。然而，与具有相似经验年数的 U13–U19 级别球员相比，具有 > 9 年经验的 Premier 球员在铲球比赛中出现 HAE 的倾向最高（RR = 1.21，95% CI 1.06–1.37； p = 0.004）。无论比赛等级或经验如何，持球始终是超过 30 克的项目的最高倾向。