A prospective study of punch biomechanics and cognitive function for amateur boxers

Sarah Stojsih ¹, Marilyn Boitano ², Marianne Wilhelm ¹ and Cynthia Bir ^1*

¹ Wayne State University, United States
² McMaster University, Canada

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cbir{at}wayne.edu.

Accepted 13 October 2008

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate several biomechanical factors of the head during a sparring session and their link to cognitive function.

Design: Instrumented Boxing Headgear (IBH) was used for data collection during 4-two minute sparring sessions. Neurocognitive assessment was measured using the ImPACT© Concussion management software. A baseline neurocognitive test was obtained from each athlete prior to sparring; two additional tests were obtained and compared to the baseline.

Setting: Male and female amateur boxers.

Participants: Data were collected from 30 male and 30 female amateur boxers.

Main Outcome Measurements: Head accelerations (translational and rotational), injury severity indexes (Head Injury Criteria (HIC) and Gadd Severity Index (GSI)), and cognitive function scores.

Results: Peak translational and rotational acceleration values were 191 g and 17,156 rad/s2, respectively, for males and 184 g and 13,113 rad/s2, respectively, for females. The peak HIC and GSI values for males were 1,652 and 2,292, respectively, and for females were 1,079 and 1,487, respectively. There was no significant difference in the neurocognitive scores between genders. A decrease was exhibited in the delayed memory post bout scores. All other scores either increased or did not significantly decrease when compared to the baseline.

Conclusions: The majority of impacts experienced by both genders were under the threshold for mild head injury. There was a statistically significant difference between peak translational and rotational acceleration, HIC, and GSI when comparing genders. When analyzing cognitive functions there was no statistical difference between genders.