Women Athletes More Likely to Suffer Head Injuries

Say good-bye to the notion that female athletes play with more caution than men do. Say hello to the fact that, when it comes to head injuries, women players have it all over their male counterparts. The Boston Globe reports on the unexpected results of a study conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Researchers found that concussion rates were higher in women than in men in
soccer (27 percent higher), basketball (66 percent higher), and ice
hockey (80 percent higher). Roughly 1.4 women soccer players out of
1,000 get a concussion, compared to 1.1 college men out of 1,000.
Female ice hockey players get injured more than male football players,
according to the research with 2.7 injuries out of 1,000 athletes
compared to 2.3. Wait. It gets worse. The Globe also reports that researchers from the
University of Pittsburgh have found that female soccer players, mostly
high school athletes, were more impaired following a concussion than
male players.When the athletes’ post-concussion
neuropsychological scores were compared with preseason scores, the
change was significantly more dramatic in female players with regard to
reaction time and number of symptoms. Female players also had greater
deficits in verbal memory and processing speeds.
Read more about women and head injuries in the Boston Globe.