ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2020
Exposure to impacts across a competitive rugby season impairs balance and neuromuscular function in female rugby athletes.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond the Hit: Muscle and Vascular Tissue Responses to Contact Exposure in Collision Sports-A Narrative Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Review
- Longitudinal changes in frontopolar cortex activity during postural tasks in collegiate ice hockey athletes.Neurophotonics · 2025Article
- Mental health trajectory throughout high school football career: a four-year prospective cohort study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Glymphatic system impairment in nonathlete older male adults who played contact sports in their youth associated with cognitive decline: A diffusion tensor image analysis along the perivascular space study.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Five weeks of Yuishinkai karate training improves balance and neuromuscular function in older adults: a preliminary study.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2022Article
- Applied sports science and sports medicine in women's rugby: systematic scoping review and Delphi study to establish future research priorities.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe used objective assessment tools to detect subtle neurological deficits that accompany repetitive and mild head impacts in contact sport across a season.
methodsFemale participants (n=13, 21±1.8 years old; 167.6±6.7 cm; 72.8±6.1 kg) completed assessments pre and post the varsity rugby season. A commercial balance board was used to assess static balance and response to dynamic postural challenge. Spinal cord excitability via the soleus H-reflex was assessed in both legs. Video analysis was used to identify head impact exposures.
resultsA total of 172 potential concussive events were verified across 11 athletes (15.6±11; 95% CI: 6.5 to 19.8). Balance performance was worse at post-season for total centre of pressure which increased by 26% in the double stance on a stable surface (t(12)=-2.33; p=0.03;
conclusionQuantitative measures revealed that exposure to impacts across a competitive rugby season impair balance in two specific stances in female rugby athletes. Tandem-leg stance on an unstable surface and double-leg stance on firm surface are useful assessment conditions when performed over a low-cost balance board, even without clinically diagnosed concussion.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.