Zaynab Elkherbaoui
Health Research Methods Sports are played worldwide for a variety of reasons. In America, collegiate sports are a popular form of entertainment. With the participation of sports, safety is always a concern; therefore, development of safety equipment is extremely important to the continuation of collegiate games. Over the years, a main concern has stemmed from the prevalence of concussions in team sports. Concussions are one of the main concerns of contact sports, and pose a great risk to contact oriented sports. (1) Prevention by protective sports equipment is the number one concussion prevention plans in use. Protective equipment consists of pads, facemasks, mouth guards and helmets …show more content…
In order to understand the severity of concussions, baseline performance testing is used to determine the range of neurocognitive functions in collegiate athletes. This testing is used to determine the average range of memory and motor skills at a normal, functional level. (4) To reflect and compare, the King-Devicke test is used to screen for on impact concussion detection. The two minute test consists of spatial and memory recall of numbers. (5) Concussion education is also used in order for athletes to understand their injuries. It was stated that only 64% of all concussions go reported during games or practices. (6) Contact sports require a multifactor system in order to reduce the rate of concussions, starting with education, moving to personal protective equipment, and continuing data research and continued development of …show more content…
A new form of polycarbonate plastic has been synthesized for the creation of collegiate helmets. The plastic was developed in order to combat the traumatic impacts created in collegiate sports, in focus on velocity and head rotation. It was hypothesized that the new form of polycarbonate plastic would reduce the risk of concussion severity in traumatic impact by 8%. Concussions in collegiate sports are of significant importance due to the domino-effect of the injuries. Repeated concussions are linked to negative mental health, brain injury and other neurological issues.