Head sensors often record false positive impact events in youth sports
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Video or observer confirmation of sensor data from youth sport concussion testing is essential to ensure reliable results, according to researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who noted head sensors often recorded false positive impacts.
In their study, researchers tested the theory that manufacturer filtering algorithms and sensor data alone are not enough to remove false positive impacts from concussion tests.
The study consisted of high school-aged male and female soccer teams equipped with headband sensors (SIM-G; Triax Technologies) that were monitored while 2 seasons. With the help of video analyzation, sensor-recorded events were identified as either an impact event, trivial event or nonevent.
Of the 6,796 recorded events, 1,893 (20%) involved players in the game (and within view of the camera). Seventy percent of those 1,893 (n = 1,316) were identified as impact events, 21% (n = 396) as trivial events, and 10% (n = 181) as nonevents.
“Most impact events were head-to-ball impacts (n = 1032, 78%), followed by player contact (n = 144, 11%) and falls (n = 129, 10%) with no significant differences between male and female teams. The SIM-G algorithm correctly identified 70%, 52%, and 66% of video-confirmed impact events, trivial events, and nonevents, respectively,” researchers wrote.
Relying solely on the sensor data is not an effective way to test head impacts in youth sports, according to the researchers.
“Video confirmation is critical to the processing of head impact sensor data,” the researchers wrote. They added, “Current manufacturer filtering algorithms and magnitude thresholds are ineffective at correctly classifying sensor-recorded events and should be used with caution.” – by Max Wursta
Disclosure: The study was funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke of the NIH (R01NS097549).
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