The Problem - Literature Review
Sports injuries have proven to cause a plethora of negative psychological effects, in addition to the obvious physical impairments (Zadeh et al., 2021). The following literature review aims to understand how wearable technology and the datafication that such technology offers, can predict, mitigate, and/or prevent sports injuries. Insights enabled by wearable technology have the potential to predict the imminent risks to the wearer and potentially reduce the consequences of an injury (Zadeh et al., 2021).
Sport Injury Statistics
Before proceeding to examine how wearable technology could improve wearer’s health and safety, it would be worthwhile to review some of the Canadian injury statistics. According to Statistics Canada, in 2009-2010, “35% of all injuries occurred during participation in some type of sports or exercise” (Injuries in Canada, 2011, para 6). Additionally, the same source reveals that “roughly 66% of injuries among individuals aged 12-19 were related to sports” (Injuries in Canada, 2011).
When it comes to sports-related injuries, the most critical question is understanding why they occur. The root cause of most sports injuries has been reported to be “falls and overexertion” (Injuries in Canada, 2011). This is consistent with Canadian hospitalization reports around injuries, since “falls” are regularly categorized and considered the most common cause for injury hospitalizations. Out of all the injuries that were reported in the “falls” category, sports made up roughly 60% (Injuries in Canada, 2011). |
Wearable Technologies
Wearable technology in the form of motion sensors, GPS, accelerometers, high-speed cameras, proximity measuring devices, etc. allow players with an increased risk of injury to be identified and targeted for intervention. Wearable devices that are connected to an athlete’s body can capture data and provide feedback to the wearer while the activity is being performed or once the activity has ended, through personalized datafication and analysis. Wearable technologies and the human-computer interaction can be an effective injury-prevention tool in both recreational as well as competitive activities.
|
Competitive Sports
Wearable technology has been assisting professional sports clubs around the world to monitor sports-related injuries. For instance, NFL teams have used wearable sensors in the helmet linings and mouth guards of the players to monitor concussions (Adesida et al., 2019). The technology calculates and measures the linear and angular head accelerations upon impact which enables the physicians and analysts to better understand the force and the potential damage (Adesida et al, 2019).
Additionally, other sports have also started to use wearable technology to obtain data using this technology which would have been otherwise unobtainable. Baseball, soccer, and volleyball are only a few examples. For instance, several international tier-1 volleyball clubs have monitored shoulder overuse injuries using wearable technologies. The collected data provides the coaches and the team-physicians with quantifiable information regarding classification of movements that pose the highest risk of injury (Adesida et al., 2019). |
Youth Sports & K-12 Education
Image source - Visualization from Data in study: Wort, G. K., Wiltshire, G., Peacock, O., Sebire, S., Daly-Smith, A., & Thompson, D. (2021). Teachers' perspectives on the acceptability and feasibility of wearable technology to inform school-based physical activity practices. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 3, 777105-777105. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.777105
|
According to Sollerhed et al. (2020), the most common sports injuries in youth happen in three settings: during physical education, organized sports, and casual physical activity. In their review, they found statistics as high as 28 out of 100 children being injured annually between the ages of 9-12 years old, and that a quarter of these injuries end up serious (requiring hospitalization). They state that one of the three main reasons that youth are vulnerable to injuries is due to their inability to recognize and evaluate risk (p.2). Wearable technology could play a role as a safety tool when educating youth on being active.
At this stage, the literature about wearable technology is mostly concentrated on adults, especially studies related to injury prevention. However, there have been some studies involving youth that are worth mentioning. A study by Ng & Ryba (2018) found that wearables can provide useful data for high school students to self-regulate and manage their anxiety due to the pressures surrounding balancing schoolwork and performing well as an athlete (p.7). In the K-12 system, a study in the UK focused on the hypothesis that many children are not engaging in sufficient physical activity and that there are severe inequalities in physical activity amongst children. The students wore Moki Devices daily over a period of time, and the data was analyzed and visually represented to educators. The results were positive as “visual representations of pupils' physical activity elicited strong responses from teachers and could therefore be used to inform teachers' behavior, school practices and policies ranging from whole-school changes to encourage physical activity, through to targeted approaches to tackle specific physical activity inequalities.” (Wort et al., 2021, p.10). Since the literature is currently lacking on wearable technology in relation to safety education with youth playing sports, we hope that you will find this OER valuable. |