New National Survey Finds Sports Concussions are more Prevalent, Harder on Women
A female athlete waits to see a neurologist after sustaining a concussion (Photo: USA TODAY High School Sports)
No two people are created equally, and it turns out neither are their concussions.
Now, according to a new study by the Women Sports Safety Initiative (WSSI), we can glean that women and girls suffer higher rates of concussions, take longer to recover from those concussions, and are often more severely impacted due to hormonal differences. In short, concussions are much worse on women than they are on men.
The data collected by the WSSI in a report named “Sports-Related Concussions: Changing the Game for Women and Sports,” shows not only that women suffer more devastating effects from head injuries, but also that a vast majority of Americans are unaware that such a disparity between men and women on head injuries exists.
While the impact of concussions on women and girls is understood, the true reason behind it still is not. That will drive the next phase of research on the topic at WSSI, and hopefully bring along more public recognition in the process.
“Concussions are routinely viewed as an issue affecting male athletes, but a significant number of female athletes also experience serious head injuries,” WSSI project director Mary Hayashi said in a statement.
“We know women suffer higher incidence in men, now we need to find out why.”