Why are female athletes more prone to concussions?

Original author: Katharine Sanderson The data on the incidence and causes of concussion among American high school athletes show surprising gender differences.

A study of 80,000 American young female football players found that the risk of concussion in female football players is twice that of male football players.

Female football players face a higher risk of concussion than male football players.

Image source: Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald/Getty Researchers conducted a survey of 43,000 boys and 39,000 girls in the three grades of high schools in Michigan.
The results of the analysis found that they are likely to have sports-related head injuries.
Outstanding gender differences, girls are 1.
88 times more likely to have a concussion than boys.

The research was published on JAMA Network Open on April 27th [1].

Scientists previously suspected that head injuries in female athletes are more common and require longer recovery time.

But this view lacks conclusive data support-the head of the study, Willie Stewart, a neuropathologist at the University of Glasgow in the UK, said, "There hasn't been much research on female athletes.

" The Michigan High School Athletes Association collected large-scale sports injuries.
Relevant data, which gives researchers the opportunity to explore whether female athletes are indeed at higher risk of concussion (see "Concussion Risk").

Source: Reference [1] "There are indeed differences between male and female athletes.

" Stewart said.

Male and female athletes in high school are also injured in different ways: the most common way for boys to suffer a concussion is to slam into another athlete, and almost half of all concussions fall into this condition.

Girls are more likely to have concussions caused by hitting other objects such as balls or goal posts.

In addition, compared with the situation of girls, boys are more likely to be replaced immediately when head injuries are suspected.

The difference in the mechanism of head injury among girls is an important finding.

Stewart said: "This may be one of the reasons why girls with concussions are not often found on the court.

" Stewart said that the concussion management system currently in use-from how to detect potential head injuries during the game, to How to treat athletes, and when they can return to the field-almost all based on research on male athletes.

"The management of concussions is based on a male, one-size-fits-all approach, maybe we need to consider methods for different genders.

" Including restricting the use of headers, or arranging more professionally trained medical staff in female matches.

Liz Williams, a biomechanics and head injury researcher at Swansea University in the United Kingdom, conducted a large-scale international study of female rugby players and their injury experience in 2020.
She was not surprised by Stewart's findings.

"Our findings are consistent.
Women are more likely to have brain damage than men," she said, "and I think the actual incidence may be higher than the reported number.

" References: 1.
Bretzin, AC et al.
JAMA Netw.
Open 4, e218191 (2021).
The original article was published under the heading Head-injury risk higher for female soccer players, massive survey finds in the News and Views section of Nature on April 30, 2021 © naturedoi: 10.
1038/d41586 -021-01184-8 Click to read the original text to view the original English promotion | Click the mini program below to view the latest hot jobs at Sun Yat-Sen University! Copyright notice: This article is translated by Springer Nature Shanghai Office.

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