Effectiveness of headgear for children with cerebral palsy: a simulation study

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a lifelong neurological disorder that affects movement, posture, and balance in children, making them vulnerable to falls and subsequent head injuries. Falls are one of the most common causes of head trauma in children with CP. One major concern associated with these falls is concussion, a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) that can result in cognitive, emotional, and physical complications. Although protective headgear may be prescribed for children with CP, there is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of these helmets in mitigating head injury risk and concussion when interacting with ground surfaces. The current study aimed to address this gap by evaluating the effectiveness of a helmet for children with CP in mitigating concussion risk across different impact locations of the head and ground surfaces. The researcher performed the dynamic tests using a child-sized surrogate headform fitted with a CP LYCRA® headgear. The headform was attached to a mechanical neckform mounted on a vertical monorail drop rig. Impact measures were analyzed using mixed factorial ANOVAs. Significant interaction effects were observed between impact location and ground surface on the concussion risk measures. The influence of impact location varied across biomechanical measures, with the greatest reductions observed at side impacts for linear acceleration and front impacts for rotational acceleration when using the foam surface. The foam surface consistently demonstrated lower injury risk measures across impact locations compared with stiffer surfaces. These findings provide biomechanical evidence to support the development of safer headgear and playground surfaces for children with CP.