Women Athletes Get More Concussions

Research by Katherine Snedaker, a concussion awareness expert, found that female athletes are more likely than males to get a concussion—and they take longer to recover, according to Kara Pappas, of the Youngstown, Ohio, Vindicator. From 1997 to 2012 doctors in emergency rooms treated nearly 1.2 million girls and women for sports-related concussions, according to data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.

Snedaker has researched gender differences in concussions since 2008 and has posted results on her website, PinkConcussions.com. She found that nearly one in 10 female athletes suffered injuries so severe that they were hospitalized. Bicycling was the leading cause of female concussions with 173, 571 emergency-room visits. Horseback riding was second, followed by soccer, basketball and softball. In terms of medical studies on concussions, female athletes are either not included or they are part of a study focusing on men.

A 2012 study on high-school athletes called “Reporting Information Online” (RIO) compared concussion rates in 20 different sports “The RIO study found that the female-concussion rates are higher than the male-concussion rates when it comes to athletic head injuries”, Pappas wrote. That study only looked at 100 high schools in the United States that actually have athletic trainers on staff. “Without trainers, concussions in high school often go unnoticed, ” Snedaker said.

In 2011, only a third of high schools in the U.S. with sports programs had a trainer on staff, according to the National Athletic Trainers Association. Joseph Congeni, M.D., the director of sports medicine at Akron Children’s Hospital and a leader in concussion treatment in Northeast Ohio, said that data he’s seen does suggest that females suffer more concussions and take longer to recover. “The major differences between male and female athletes with sports concussions tend to be that female athletes have less shoulder girdle and neck strength, which helps dampen the blow of a significant head or body shot, ” he said.