Prevalence of Heading in Middle School American Youth Club Soccer Players

Abstract

Research Objectives To find out the frequency of heading event occurrence in the youth club soccer season. Design Observational study. Setting Community setting at the soccer match playground. Participants Player on an “Oceanside Breakers Competitive male soccer team” composed of 6th-grade middle school players and their opponents’ team. Interventions No interventions. Main Outcome Measures Number of heading occurrence in the participants and opposite team observer by the research team. Results The mean standardized assessment of concussion (SAC) score for the observed soccer team was 24.9±2.6 (out of 30). The number of heading occurrences in the consecutive 11 matches in both teams are 47, 34, 26, 23, 33, 29, 45, 31, 32, 40, 51. The average heading occurrence is 35.5 times/ match in a season. The observed team showed that the frequency of heading is more in the middle location 18.72±8.79 compared to the forward location (14.34±8.51) and the defense (10.34±7.1). However, there is no significant difference between the number of heading events at different locations of the play level (forward, middle, and defense) F2,10=1.097; p=.372. Conclusions Independent of the player's location, all players are susceptible to heading occurrence in the soccer game. With the high frequency of this occurrence, there is a need to address this problem at the level of the soccer federation and policymakers of the soccer game. The players, coaches, family members need to be educated to decrease the heading occurrence in the soccer game since the repetitive heading occurrence may have a negative influence on the developing brain. Author(s) Disclosures None of the authors have conflicts of interest. To find out the frequency of heading event occurrence in the youth club soccer season. Observational study. Community setting at the soccer match playground. Player on an “Oceanside Breakers Competitive male soccer team” composed of 6th-grade middle school players and their opponents’ team. No interventions. Number of heading occurrence in the participants and opposite team observer by the research team. The mean standardized assessment of concussion (SAC) score for the observed soccer team was 24.9±2.6 (out of 30). The number of heading occurrences in the consecutive 11 matches in both teams are 47, 34, 26, 23, 33, 29, 45, 31, 32, 40, 51. The average heading occurrence is 35.5 times/ match in a season. The observed team showed that the frequency of heading is more in the middle location 18.72±8.79 compared to the forward location (14.34±8.51) and the defense (10.34±7.1). However, there is no significant difference between the number of heading events at different locations of the play level (forward, middle, and defense) F2,10=1.097; p=.372. Independent of the player's location, all players are susceptible to heading occurrence in the soccer game. With the high frequency of this occurrence, there is a need to address this problem at the level of the soccer federation and policymakers of the soccer game. The players, coaches, family members need to be educated to decrease the heading occurrence in the soccer game since the repetitive heading occurrence may have a negative influence on the developing brain.