Associate Professor Lakehead University School of Kinesiology Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between neck strength and linear acceleration and risk of injury during a 3.61 m/s impact to the front, side and rear head locations for female hockey players.
Design: Using a correlational design, a NOCSAE headform mounted to a neckform designed to represent participants’ neck strength was impacted using a horizontal linear impactor. Pearson correlations and repeated measures ANOVAs were used to address the research purpose.
Results: Neck strength was not correlated with linear acceleration and risk of injury across locations. For linear acceleration, the front (r= .62, p< .05) and side (r=.73, p< .05) locations correlated with the rear. For risk of injury, the front (r= .62, p< .05) location correlated with the rear. A significant main effect of impact location on linear acceleration F(2,22)=32.82, p< .05, η2=.76 and risk of injury F(2,22)=50.78, p< .05, η2=.82 were found.
Conclusions: The results suggest that neck strength does not mitigate linear acceleration and risk of injury during impacts. Further research in this area needs to be conducted and should include varying speeds and angular acceleration to properly assess the effect of neck strength on concussion mitigation. The validity of the neckform used should also be reassessed.
