Girls Suffering More Concussions in High School Sports
This comes from a study to be published in the Journal of Athletic Training, in which researchers found that in high school soccer, girls suffered concussions 68 percent more often than boys did. The concussion rates of girls playing high school basketball were almost three times higher than that of boys.
They also found that in the girls who sustained concussions it took longer for symptoms to resolve and to return to play than for boys.
About the study:
Researchers at Ohio State University and Nationwide Children's Hospital examined data submitted by 425 certified athletic trainers across the United States during the 2005-20066 academic year. Their findings showed that football has the highest rate of concussion in high school sports, with 47 such injuries per 100,000 player games or practices. Girls soccer was second highest with 36 concussions per 100,000 player games or practices, followed by boys soccer (22 concussions) and girls basketball (21 concussions).
Earlier this summer another study found that the incidence of serious head injuries and concussion in football players is three times higher in high school than in college. The study was published in the the American Journal of Sports Medicine.
Recurrent sport-related concussions have also been linked to an increased risk of clinical depression according to research published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
More Information:
All of these studies highlight the importance of high school athletes, coaches, parents, and medical staff at the high school level to understand and adhere to head injury guidelines that recommendation that an athlete with any neurologic symptom from a head injury should not return to play.
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