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> I recently found out that helmets do nothing to prevent concussion regardless of the sport. This is false. Or you misspoke in some way. New helmet designs

> I recently found out that helmets do nothing to prevent concussion regardless of the sport. This is false. Or you misspoke in some way. New helmet designs do indeed help prevent concussions by deforming to take the blow and lessen the brain movement in the head, hence reducing concussions. https://theathletic.com/4776016/2023/08/28/vicis-helmets-nfl-concussions/ https://theathletic.com/4776016/2023/08/28/vicis-helmets-nfl... > According to the NFL and NFLPA, the safer helmet designs that have resulted from the innovations of VICIS and other companies have eliminated between 20 and 25 NFL concussions per year over the last five to seven seasons.

thaumasiotes 3y ago
>> According to the NFL and NFLPA, the safer helmet designs that have resulted from the innovations of VICIS and other companies have eliminated between 20 and 25 NFL concussions per year over the last five to seven seasons. This kind of reminds me of the genre of preschool study where the headline result is cutting the average number of incarcerations per student later in life from 6 to 4.
- chollida1 3y ago
  So is that a good thing? your comment is very unclear and ambiguous:)
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
    Pointless; you're improving from a level that is unimaginably terrible to a level that is also unimaginably terrible. The difference in effects downstream of the incident being counted ("can the player remember where he lives?") is likely to be much smaller than the difference in incidents, because for most purposes there is no difference between the pre- and post-treatment results. I see that in 2011 there were 32 NFL teams and a team can field no more than 11 players at a time. If I assume an average of 352 concussions a year, one per year per "stylized active player" - and I would bet the number is higher - a reduction of 25 per year is basically meaningless. That would correspond to a reduction in concussions per player-year from 1 to about 0.93, or if the rate of concussions was three times as high as I assumed above, from 3 to 2.9. As far as the preschool studies go, people like to use them to argue that the same intervention should have some kind of beneficial effect when applied to normal students whose average lifetime incarcerations are zero. There is no justification for this.
    - chollida1 3y ago
      > I see that in 2011 there were 32 NFL teams and a team can field no more than 11 players at a time. If I assume an average of 352 concussions a year, one per year per "stylized active player" - and I would bet the number is higher - a reduction of 25 per year is basically meaningles Really, I'd say those 25 people are very happy to not have concussions. You're begin extremely crass just dismissing the health of 25 people. Which I guess can happen if you look at things strictly through a stats lens and not a personal impact one
      - thaumasiotes 3y ago
        > You're be[ing] extremely crass just dismissing the health of 25 people. Sometimes it's more important to recognize whether anything meaningful has been accomplished than whether people have their hearts in the right place. If you'll notice, I did explicitly treat player health, as opposed to concussion count: >> The difference in effects downstream of the incident being counted ("can the player remember where he lives?") is likely to be much smaller than the difference in incidents, because for most purposes there is no difference between the pre- and post-treatment results.

thaumasiotes 3y ago

>> According to the NFL and NFLPA, the safer helmet designs that have resulted from the innovations of VICIS and other companies have eliminated between 20 and 25 NFL concussions per year over the last five to seven seasons. This kind of reminds me of the genre of preschool study where the headline result is cutting the average number of incarcerations per student later in life from 6 to 4.

chollida1 3y ago
So is that a good thing? your comment is very unclear and ambiguous:)
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  Pointless; you're improving from a level that is unimaginably terrible to a level that is also unimaginably terrible. The difference in effects downstream of the incident being counted ("can the player remember where he lives?") is likely to be much smaller than the difference in incidents, because for most purposes there is no difference between the pre- and post-treatment results. I see that in 2011 there were 32 NFL teams and a team can field no more than 11 players at a time. If I assume an average of 352 concussions a year, one per year per "stylized active player" - and I would bet the number is higher - a reduction of 25 per year is basically meaningless. That would correspond to a reduction in concussions per player-year from 1 to about 0.93, or if the rate of concussions was three times as high as I assumed above, from 3 to 2.9. As far as the preschool studies go, people like to use them to argue that the same intervention should have some kind of beneficial effect when applied to normal students whose average lifetime incarcerations are zero. There is no justification for this.
  - chollida1 3y ago
    > I see that in 2011 there were 32 NFL teams and a team can field no more than 11 players at a time. If I assume an average of 352 concussions a year, one per year per "stylized active player" - and I would bet the number is higher - a reduction of 25 per year is basically meaningles Really, I'd say those 25 people are very happy to not have concussions. You're begin extremely crass just dismissing the health of 25 people. Which I guess can happen if you look at things strictly through a stats lens and not a personal impact one
    - thaumasiotes 3y ago
      > You're be[ing] extremely crass just dismissing the health of 25 people. Sometimes it's more important to recognize whether anything meaningful has been accomplished than whether people have their hearts in the right place. If you'll notice, I did explicitly treat player health, as opposed to concussion count: >> The difference in effects downstream of the incident being counted ("can the player remember where he lives?") is likely to be much smaller than the difference in incidents, because for most purposes there is no difference between the pre- and post-treatment results.