Farley, Theo;
(2022)
Risk factors and effective assessment of concussion in an athletic population.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Background Concussion is one of the highest burden injuries within contact sports and comes with a high health and financial cost. Inadequet evidence exists identifying intrinsic risk factors to concussion, leaving sports medicine departments with limited options to reduce injury incidence. Common comorbidities to concussion include dysfunction of the vestibular-oculomotor system and are commonly assessed as part of sideline concussion tests. Physical exertion is known to have a delirious impact on many bodily functions but it is unclear what impact high intensity exercise, akin to sporting participation, has on the vestibular-oculomotor system. Aims The aims of this thesis were to investigate whether two different measure of neck function, strength and proprioception, are associated with concussion incidence in male professional rugby players and To investigate the impact of high intensity exercise on the vestibular-oculomotor system in a mixed gender and activity group. Methods Neck strength and proprioception was assessed in 390 professional players and concussion incidence and exposure data were collected to analyse associations with concussion risk through a full season. The Vestibular-Oculomotor Screening (VOMS) tool was assessed pre and post high intensity exercise in 75 participants. Deterioration of test scores was used as a marker of declining vestibular-oculomotor function. Results Significant associations were found between both neck strength and proprioception, and concussion rates leading to the identification of two risk factors to concussion in male professional rugby players. The impact of high intensity exercise on VOMS was shown to be significant in all groups including, different genders, activity levels and sports participated in. Conclusion The evidence surrounding the assessment of concussion and its risk factors are important lines of investigation within sports medicine research and work must continue in order to open the door to interventional studies that may eventually reduce the risk of this high impact injury.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Risk factors and effective assessment of concussion in an athletic population |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10157793 |
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