Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of British Columbia, 6250 Applied Science Ln Room 2054, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Department of Integrated Sciences, University of British Columbia, 6356 Agricultural Rd Room 464, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jan 20;14(1):1796. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-52163-8.
There is growing concern that repetitive soccer headers may have negative long-term consequences on brain health. However, inconsistent and low-quality heading exposure measurements limit past investigations of this effect. Here we conducted a comprehensive heading exposure analysis across all players on a university women's soccer team for over two calendar years (36 unique athletes), quantifying both game and practice exposure during all in-season and off-season periods, with over ten thousand video-confirmed headers. Despite an average of approximately 2 headers per day, players' daily exposures ranged from 0 to 45 headers, accumulating to highly variable total exposure of 2-223 headers over each in-season/off-season period. Overall, practices and off-season periods accounted for 70% and 45% of headers, respectively. Impact sensor data showed that heading kinematics fell within a tight distribution, but sensors could not capture full heading exposure due to factors such as compliance. With first-of-its-kind complete heading exposure data, we recommend exposure assessments be made on an individual level and include practice/off-season collection in addition to games and competitive seasons. Commonly used group statistics do not capture highly variable exposures, and individualized complete heading exposure tracking needs to be incorporated in future study designs for confirming the potential brain injury risk associated with soccer heading.
人们越来越担心重复性足球头球可能对大脑健康产生长期的负面影响。然而，过去对这种影响的研究受到头球暴露测量不一致和质量低的限制。在这里，我们对一支大学女子足球队的所有球员进行了全面的头球暴露分析，在两个日历年（36 名不同的运动员）中量化了所有赛季内和赛季外的比赛和练习暴露情况，共进行了超过一万次视频确认的头球。尽管平均每天约有 2 个头球，但球员们的日常暴露情况从 0 到 45 个头球不等，每个赛季内/赛季外的总暴露量累积到 2-223 个头球不等，差异很大。总的来说，练习和淡季分别占头球的 70%和 45%。冲击传感器数据显示，头球运动学的分布范围很窄，但由于合规性等因素，传感器无法捕捉到全部的头球暴露情况。有了首例完整的头球暴露数据，我们建议在个体层面进行暴露评估，并将练习/淡季的头球暴露情况纳入比赛和竞技赛季中。常用的组统计数据无法捕捉到高度可变的暴露情况，因此需要在未来的研究设计中纳入个体化的完整头球暴露跟踪，以确认与足球头球相关的潜在脑损伤风险。
