Jones, Ben

Tooby, James

Weaving, Dan

Till, Kevin

Owen, Cameron

Begonia, Mark

Stokes, Keith A

Rowson, Steven

Phillips, Gemma

Hendricks, Sharief

Falvey, Eanna Cian

Al-Dawoud, Marwan

Tierney, Gregory

2022-10

<p><b>Objectives</b> Assess the validity and feasibility of current instrumented mouthguards (iMGs) and associated systems.</p> <p><b>Methods</b> Phase I" four iMG systems (BiocoreFootball Research Inc (FRI), HitIQ, ORB, Prevent) were compared against dummy headform laboratory criterion standards (25, 50, 75, 100 g). Phase II" four iMG systems were evaluated for on-field validity of iMG-triggered events against video-verification to determine true-positives, false-positives and falsenegatives (20±9 player matches per iMG). Phase III" four iMG systems were evaluated by 18 rugby players, for perceptions of <i>fit, comfort and function</i>. Phase IV" three iMG systems (Biocore-FRI, HitIQ, Prevent) were evaluated for practical feasibility (System Usability Scale (SUS)) by four practitioners.</p> <p><b>Results</b> Phase I" total concordance correlation coefficients were 0.986, 0.965, 0.525 and 0.984 for Biocore-FRI, HitIQ, ORB and Prevent. Phase II" different on-field kinematics were observed between iMGs. Positive predictive values were 0.98, 0.90, 0.53 and 0.94 for Biocore-FRI, HitIQ, ORB and Prevent. Sensitivity values were 0.51, 0.40, 0.71 and 0.75 for Biocore-FRI, HitIQ, ORB and Prevent. Phase III" player perceptions of <i>fit, comfort and function</i> were 77%, 6/10, 55% for Biocore-FRI, 88%, 8/10, 61% for HitIQ, 65%, 5/10, 43% for ORB and 85%, 8/10, 67% for Prevent. Phase IV" SUS (preparation-management) was 51.3–50.6/100, 71.3–78.8/100 and 83.8–80.0/100 for Biocore-FRI, HitIQ and Prevent.</p> <p><b>Conclusion</b> This study shows differences between current iMG systems exist. Sporting organisations can use these findings when evaluating which iMG system is most appropriate to monitor head acceleration events in athletes, supporting player welfare initiatives related to concussion and head acceleration exposure.</p>

British Journal of Sports Medicine, 56(20), p. 1171-1179

1473-0480

0306-3674

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/58135

en

BMJ Group

Ready for impact? A validity and feasibility study of instrumented mouthguards (iMGs)

Journal Article

Publication