Head impact in blind football during the Tokyo Paralympics: Video-based observational study

Abstract

Head impacts during blind football are common and have high injury rates; however, their characteristics and impact are still underreported. We compared head impact characteristics in blind football players with and without falls on all 18 official blind football match videos from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games. The rate of head impacts with falls was significantly higher in the preliminary phase, offense phase, and during dribbling. Significant differences in the region of the head impacted were also observed among the impact subjects/objects. The findings in this study would contribute to the development of injury prevention measures to minimize head injuries from head impact in blind football.

Head impact differences in blind football between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games: video-based observational study

“…In the present study, the headgear wearing rate in Rio 2016 was 30.2%, which was higher than previously reported in the Tokyo 2020 competition (23.4%) 4. There was a 5-year gap between Rio and Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic 20 21.…”

“…Residual analysis showed the following characteristics that resulted in a high percentage of head impacts in Tokyo 2020: dribbling, impact with the opponent, face impact and falling. Previous research on head impact areas and objects during blind football games has demonstrated that a higher percentage of impacts to the face occur during contact with the opponent 4. Furthermore, 44.2% of head impacts without falls reportedly occurred during dribbling, compared with 55.9% with falls 4.…”

“…Impact with a fall included cases in which there was head contact, and then the athlete fell, and cases in which the head contacted with something after losing balance due to contact other than the head. Furthermore, the definition of a fall was defined as contact between a body part other than the foot and the ground 4. Impact with a fall included cases in which there was head contact, and then the athlete fell, and cases in which the head contacted something after a loss of balance due to contact with something other than the head.…”

“…Blind football is known to have the highest injury rate of all Paralympic disciplines 2 3. Blind football has been shown to cause 52.0 visually identified head impacts per game in the Paralympic Games,4 with head and neck injuries accounting for 25% of acute injuries 5. According to the concussion risk rate for para-sports competitions, blind football was ranked second highest of the five levels 6.…”

“…A previous study reported on the head impact occurrence at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games based on video analysis. The study demonstrated that the impact situations differed depending on whether the head impact did or did not result in a fall 4. However, the study was limited in that it only included an analysis of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.…”