There is increasing concern regarding the effects of heading in football on brain health including cognitive, behavioural and neuromotor function, with research suggesting an association between repeated ball-head impacts and neurodegenerative disease. While longitudinal studies to determine the long-term consequences of heading are challenging, there have been short-term ‘acute’ studies conducted, with some studies lacking appropriate methodology to ensure valid results. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) established a panel of experts to determine methodological recommendations for the conduct of studies that explore the acute effects of heading (defined as a single session of heading conducted either in a laboratory setting or following match play or a training session). The aim of this panel was to create quality criteria for acute heading studies that will form part of the eligibility assessment when applying for UEFA research funding (although the criteria can be applied to the conduct of acute heading research more widely). This process was deemed necessary to counter studies with poor methodological quality that used heading trials that did not accurately represent player exposure to ball-head impacts through football practice and match play (such as small sample sizes, unrealistically high heading exposure, and a lack of consideration of confounding variables). The panel identified core design decisions that authors should consider when designing and conducting acute heading research, with key methodological requirements for each domain pertaining to participants, heading trials, confounding variables, statistics and dependent/target variables and their measurement. After two rounds of reviews, the final list of quality criteria was agreed by the panel and will be applied to the next round of UEFA grant applications.

人们越来越关注足球比赛中头球对大脑健康（包括认知、行为和神经运动功能）的影响，研究表明反复的球头撞击与神经退行性疾病之间存在关联。虽然确定航向长期后果的纵向研究具有挑战性，但已经进行了短期“急性”研究，其中一些研究缺乏适当的方法来确保有效的结果。欧洲足球协会联盟 (UEFA) 成立了一个专家小组，以确定进行研究的方法建议，这些研究探索头球的急性影响（定义为在实验室环境中或在比赛或比赛后进行的单次头球训练）。培训课程）。该小组的目的是为急性航向研究制定质量标准，该标准将成为申请欧足联研究经费时资格评估的一部分（尽管该标准可以更广泛地应用于进行急性航向研究）。这一过程被认为是必要的，以应对方法质量较差的研究，这些研究使用的头球试验不能准确地代表球员在足球练习和比赛中受到球头撞击的情况（例如样本量小、不切实际的高头球暴露以及缺乏考虑混杂变量）。该小组确定了作者在设计和进行急性标题研究时应考虑的核心设计决策，以及与参与者、标题试验、混杂变量、统计数据和因/目标变量及其测量相关的每个领域的关键方法学要求。经过两轮审查，最终的质量标准清单得到了专家组的同意，并将应用于下一轮欧足联拨款申请。