By ELAINE MALLON
Capital News Service
LANSING — Heads up!
Female high school athletes are at a greater risk than males for continuing to play after a concussion, according to a recent Michigan State University study.
Across all sports with male and female athletes, the risk is 1.33 times higher for females, it found,
That means girls and young women who play such sports as soccer, basketball and softball are less likely than males to receive immediate medical care, according to the study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.
And that makes females more susceptible to a repeat concussion and more likely to have twice as long a recovery time, according to the study.
Researchers examined concussions reported in the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Head Injury Reporting System between 2016 and 2019 in 22 sports with both male and female teams.
Between those years, 4,118 concussions fitting that criteria were reported.
While 66% of all concussions in Michigan high school sports happened to males, the numbers were reversed when looking only at sports that both sexes play. Female athletes accounted for 63% of concussions in soccer, basketball and other sports where both genders participated. Researchers concluded that concussions happen more frequently to females than males in the same sport.
Female soccer players were at the greatest risk for concussions among all sports with both gender athletes. Between2016 and 2019, 1,023 concussions were reported in female soccer players.For male soccer players, 578 reports were recorded.
The study found that 20% of female soccer players continued to play after being injured, while only 15% of male players weren’t pulled from the game.
Girls’ basketball and boys’ soccer experienced the second- and third-highest number of concussions.
According to head researcher Aaron Zynda, many studies have explored sports-related concussions in football and other male sports, but there’s little information about how they affect females.
While the study concluded that females are less likely to receive proper medical treatment immediately after a concussion, it couldn’t determine the reasons for that.
It suggests that femalse feel less comfortable reporting injuries to athletics trainers of the opposite sex, but that suggestion comes only from previous research, not from what the MSU researchers observed.
Zynda, a Ph.D. student in kinesiology, said more work is needed to explain the gender discrepancy because researchers lacked access to data on health care for student-athletes and information about the delayed onset of symptoms.
“ We need to be prudent about examining this issue across all female sports in order to protect female athletes from harm,” Zynda said.
Since the study’s publication, Zynda and his research team have shared their findings with high school athletic trainers.
He said dissemination of information is key to protecting female athletes. His team also uses social media to spread the message.
In the past 15 years, MHSAA has made head injuries and concussions a priority, according to communications director Geoff Kimmerly.
By mandating that high schools report head injuries, the association created a first-of-its-kind study for high school athletics.
“We’ve been pretty deep in the study of this,” Kimmerly said. “We’ve been pretty deep in trying to promote awareness and make rule changes that would limit as much as possible the number of collisions that take place.
“We have been told in our research that different groups of students are less likely to report a head injury,” he said.
State law requires all coaches and athletic trainers to receive retraining on sports- related concussions and head injuries every three years.
Zynda said coaches need to put their players ahead of winning, and players should be encouraged to put their health and safety first.
With knowledge of the newest findings, MHSAA will continue ensuring that all athletes across all sports receive support after an injury, Kimmerly said.
“There should be no worry in making sure that their coaches or their trainers or administrators know that they’ve been injured in this way,” Kimmerly said. “We can get them the treatment that they need to get back playing at full speed when it’s appropriate.”