Welcome to the second issue of JSAMS Plus for 2024. Several of our articles in this issue focus on head injuries. First, Gardner and colleagues studied head impacts in the elite pathway Queensland Rugby League (QRL) competitions. They report a concussion incidence of 2.93/1000 player match hours for the Under-18 group and 5.75/1000 player match hours for the Under-20 group, both of which are lower than in adult professional players [1].
Jacobs and Kara review and summarise the recommendations contained in current concussion consensus statements, guidelines and protocols [2]. They present a useful comparison table for clinicians, including key aspects of documents from the international Concussion in Sport Group, the Australian Institute of Sport, the ACC (New Zealand), UK, World Rugby, Rugby League and Australian Football.
Swarén and Fahlstedt present interesting data using mouthguards to monitor head impact exposure in elite Swedish ice hockey. They found that female athletes experienced fewer head impacts than male players, but that these were harder impacts [3]. Staying with ice hockey, Hirvelä and colleagues report findings from a prospective cohort study of male elite ice hockey players in Finland from 2017 to 2020. They found the injury rate was 28 % lower than in earlier studies in Finland and that concussion was the most common injury [4].
Megalaa and colleagues studied ankle braces’ impact on functional performance in a randomised double-blind cross-over trial. They found that neither function nor balance performance was impacted by wearing an ankle brace, which may be helpful for practitioners [5].
Finally, Karmakar et al. looked at burnout in Australian sport and exercise physicians and registrars. Their survey results show burnout is an important risk and that increased working hours and job dissatisfaction raised the odds of burnout [6].
Special issue on exercise oncology
Our first special issue for 2024 is now complete. Lead by Guest Editors Dr David Mizrahi, Professor Rob Newton, Dr Carolina Sandler and Dr Erika Rees-Punia, the articles in this special issue showcase the expanding role of exercise oncology as an important element of cancer care [7]. The wide range of papers review existing research [8,9] and describe novel interventions and analyses [[10], [11], [12], [13]].
Lookout for our next special issue on Physical Activity in those with Disability in 2025.
References
- 1.Gardner A.J., Lang M.A., Edwards S., Jones B., Iverson G.L., Terry D.P. Head injury assessment in youth men's rugby league players: an evaluation of game play characteristics and video review of potential concussion signs. JSAMS Plus. 2024;4 doi: 10.1016/j.jsampl.2024.100072. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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