Concussions in Females
The risk is not the same.
Recent studies show that when playing the same contact sports, females have a higher risk of getting a concussion than their male counterparts. This risk increases when the female athletes are at a younger age.
O’Kane and Soccer in the state of Washington
O’Kane and his team contacted 36 teams in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. 33 of the teams agreed to the study. 351 female soccer players between the ages of 11 and 14 participated in the study. 8 of the teams participated for 3 seasons (between 2008 and 2011), 9 teams participated for the 2011–2012 seasons and 6 participated for 2 seasons.
To monitor the players, O’Kane and his team sent weekly emails to the players’ parents. The parents would report if their daughter sustained a concussion based on the symptoms of a concussion.
Symptoms reported include: headaches, dizziness, concentration problems, drowsiness, nausea, light sensitivity, irritability, and confusion. Loss of consciousness is a rare symptom, but severe compared to the other symptoms. Certain symptoms remained for a longer period of time than other symptoms. These symptoms were: light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, and emotional lability (the occurrence of disproportionate feelings).
Parents received another email if they did not respond within 2 days. Those who did not respond to the email were phoned by O’Kane’s staff.
O’Kane asked the soccer players what could cause an injury in soccer, if they continued to play with that injury, and if a professional evaluated whether or not a player had a concussion. O’Kane also asked a trained parent on each soccer team’s coaching staff to log the number of minutes that each player was on the field.
Some of the players enrolled for 2 seasons, giving O’Kane and his team a set of baselines for comparing players with and without concussions.
O’Kane and his partners worked within the state of Washington and found that 59 concussions occurred. Of these concussions, 51 were first-time and 8 were repeat.
The most common symptoms reported were: headaches, dizziness, concentration problems, drowsiness, nausea, light sensitivity, irritability, and confusion. A loss of consciousness was uncommon. The players suffering light sensitivity, emotional instability, noise sensitivity, memory loss, nausea, and concentration problems recovered slower than those without these symptoms.
Player-player contact and heading the ball were the most common cause of concussion among the female players. A majority of the concussions occurred to the younger, middle-school aged players. O’Kane found that within the female athletes, black or mixed-race children were more likely to sustain a concussion, though not by much more.
Problems and Conclusions
O’Kane addresses that if the concussions found were formally evaluated, the diagnosis would be different. He also talks about the dependence of the internet and the athletes’ parents in reporting symptoms.
O’Kane implores other scientists to continue studying concussion, as thoroughly knowing about concussions may aid in the future development of treatment and prevention of brain diseases.
Sources
LaBella C. (2014). Concussion and Female Middle School Athletes. JAMA, 312(7):739–740. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.6668.
O’Kane J.W., Spieker A., Levy M.R., Neradilek M., Polissar N.L., Schiff M.A. (2014). Concussion Among Female Middle-School Soccer Players, JAMA Pediatr. 168(3):258–264. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.4518.
