Measurements of Non-Injurious Head Accelerations of a Pediatric Population

While adult head injuries have been studied over the past six decades, few studies have investigated pediatric head injury mechanics. This paper presents non-injurious head accelerations during various activities in a pediatric population. Six males and six females aged 8–11 years old were equipped with a validated head sensor package and head kinematics were measured while performing a series of playground-type activities. Maximum resultant values across all participants and activities were 25.7 g (range 3.0 g to 25.7 g), 16.0 rad/s (range 10.4 rad/s to 16.0 rad/s), and 1705 rad/s² (range 520 rad/s² to 1705 rad/s²) for linear acceleration, angular velocity, and angular acceleration, respectively. Mean maximum resultant values across all participants and activities were 9.7 g (range 2.1 g to 9.7 g) and 734 rad/s² (range 188 rad/s² to 734 rad/s²) for linear and angular acceleration, respectively. The peak accelerations measured in this study are approximately twice that of previous everyday acceleration studies undertaken with adult subjects. The present study increases the upper limit of known non-injurious activities and closes the gap between the lower limit of injurious loading and the upper limit of non-injurious loading.