Study examines gender differences of head impact exposure among high school athletes
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Male high school soccer, basketball and lacrosse athletes had higher head impact rates compared with female athletes in the same sports, according to published results.
Investigators at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia used headband-mounted impact sensors to quantify head impact exposure in a population of high school female (n = 56) and male (n = 68) varsity soccer, basketball, lacrosse and field hockey (female only) athletes. According to the study, investigators used video review to rule out false-positive sensor-recorded events.
“Male athletes had significantly higher head impact rates as compared with female players in soccer (3.08 vs. 1.41 impacts) basketball (0.90 vs. 0.25) and lacrosse (0.83 vs. 0.06),” the investigators wrote in the study.
Additionally, investigators found similar impact mechanism distributions across sports and genders. In soccer, 78% of head impacts resulted from head-to-ball contact, while 88% of head impacts in basketball resulted from player-to-player contact, according to the study.
“Accurate head impact exposure data obtained via head impact sensors may help identify appropriate strategies across sports and between genders to mitigate repetitive head impacts,” the investigators wrote. “Overall, the data provided in this study provide an objective quantification of head impact exposure across sports and between genders that can be useful in anticipatory guidance for clinicians to provide to patients as they consider sport participation.”
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Despite many initiatives to protect young athletes and curtail concussions, the incidence of concussions continues to grow. Adolescent athletes are particularly vulnerable to the short- and long-term implications of concussion on brain function; however, many fail to report concussion-related symptoms. The authors must be commended for their usage of head impact sensors in reporting adolescent sport- and gender-based differences in head impact rate.
There is a paucity of data comparing the differences between male and female concussion incidence and presentation. This study illustrated that male athletes had significantly higher head impact rates than female players in soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Next, the authors illustrated that in soccer, a majority of trauma was attributable to head-to-ball impacts. The data from this study will be pivotal for sport-specific interventions for reducing head impact exposure, allowing for a new frontier for concussion research: the correlation of head impact rates, concussion magnitude and symptoms.
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