Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, 325 Stanger Street, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA.
Ann Biomed Eng. 2022 Nov;50(11):1444-1451. doi: 10.1007/s10439-022-03063-3. Epub 2022 Sep 12.
Shoulder-to-helmet (STH) impacts have been shown to cause approximately twenty percent of concussions in football yet little research has investigated shoulder pad design and STH impacts. This study aimed to characterize STH impacts and identify the effect of shoulder pad design on the struck head kinematics. Additional padding was added to a shoulder pad, and was then compared to an unmodified control shoulder pad. Participants performed a series of tests where they struck a helmeted Hybrid III dummy with both shoulder pad variations to compare struck head linear and rotational kinematics. The study found the modified shoulder pad reduced peak linear acceleration by 31% (Δµ = - 9.13 g's (- ∞, - 7.25), (p = 4.10e-08)), rotational acceleration by 28% (Δµ = - 565 rad s(- ∞, - 435), (p = 2.10e-07)), peak rotational velocity by 10% (Δµ = - 2.42 rad s (- ∞, - 1.54), (p = 6.9e-05)), and increased impact duration by 40% (Δµ = 9.96 ms (8.06, ∞), (p = 1.142e-08)). Impact response corridors were developed for both shoulder pad conditions and can be used to establish a controlled lab test setup that replicates STH impacts. Our findings suggest that shoulder pads have the potential to reduce head injury in football and warrant further research.
肩对头盔（STH）的撞击已被证明约占足球运动中脑震荡的 20%，但很少有研究调查肩垫设计和 STH 撞击。本研究旨在描述 STH 撞击，并确定肩垫设计对撞击头部运动学的影响。在肩垫上增加了额外的衬垫，然后将其与未修改的对照肩垫进行比较。参与者进行了一系列测试，用两种肩垫变体撞击头盔化的 Hybrid III 假人，以比较撞击头部的线性和旋转运动学。研究发现，改良肩垫将峰值线性加速度降低了 31%（Δµ= -9.13 g's (-∞, -7.25)，（p=4.10e-08）），旋转加速度降低了 28%（Δµ= -565 rad s(-∞, -435)，（p=2.10e-07）），峰值旋转速度降低了 10%（Δµ= -2.42 rad s (-∞, -1.54)，（p=6.9e-05）），并且撞击持续时间增加了 40%（Δµ= 9.96 ms (8.06, ∞)，（p=1.142e-08））。为两种肩垫条件开发了冲击响应通道，可以用于建立复制 STH 冲击的受控实验室测试设置。我们的研究结果表明，肩垫有可能减少足球运动中的头部受伤，并值得进一步研究。
