Middle school girls that play soccer are more vulnerable to concussions than their high school counterparts. They also continue to play the sport even with concussion symptoms, according to University of Washington researchers.
The awareness about sports concussions has increased quite a bit over the past few years. Unfortunately, most of these studies look into concussions among high school athletes. Very little research has been conducted on middle school students and even lesser on girls. University of Washington researchers focused on how middle school girls who play soccer, are vulnerable to head injuries.
They found that such girls get more concussions than their high school counterparts and also continue to play the sport even with the head injuries.
"We were surprised at the number of girls reporting symptoms but more surprised at the number that played despite symptoms and never saw a health professional for their symptoms," Dr. John O'Kane told Reuters Health in an email. "Kids should understand that these symptoms could indicate a potentially serious injury and that they must stop play when they occur and notify their parents."
The study was conducted on 351 girls ages 11 to 14 from 33 soccer teams. Each team was followed for at least one year over a period of four years. During this period, researchers sent out regular emails to the participants' parents asking them if their daughters had suffered any hits to the head that resulted in symptoms usually associated with concussions. If any replies came back positive, researchers got in touch with the participant to find out more details about the injury.
At the end of the study, researchers noted 59 concussions including eight repeat concussions. Most of these concussions took place while playing the game, either while banging into another player or heading the ball.
Researchers revealed that the rate of 1.3 concussions for every 1,000 hours of practice or game time among middle school girls was way higher than the 0.6 concussions during the same duration among high school and college students.
What made the discovery all the more alarming was the fact that a whopping 58 percent of middle school girls continued to play soccer despite concussion symptoms. This can prove to be quite dangerous.
Symptoms of a concussion last for approximately 9 days and during this time if you suffer from another concussion, the consequences worsen, according to a Medical Xpress report.
According to the authors, it is the responsibility of parents and coaches to ensure that children's concussion symptoms are appropriately evaluated before returning to play.
"Future studies are needed to develop education strategies to ensure players understand and report concussion symptoms and that parents and coaches ensure appropriate medical evaluation and clearance before returning to play," Science Codex quoted the authors as saying. "Future studies should also compare short- and long-term outcomes for those who seek medical care and return to play according to recommended guidelines vs. those who do not seek medical care and/or return to play prematurely."
American Academy of Pediatrics published a similar study last May stating that most high school and college footballers refrained from reporting any incident of concussions to their coaches or parents fearing that their injury would "sideline" them from the game. The report revealed that while 90 percent of players were aware of returning to play after suffering a concussion was dangerous, only half of them reported the injury.
"Despite their knowledge, many athletes in our sample reported that they would not tell their coach about symptoms and would continue to play," co-author Brit Anderson said in a statement. "A small percentage even responded that athletes have a responsibility to play in important games with a concussion. In other words, athletes who had more knowledge about concussions were not more likely to report symptoms."
