“While American football has been both scientifically and colloquially associated with the highest concussion rates, our study found that girls, and especially those who play soccer, may face a higher risk,” said Wellington Hsu, MD, professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University. Data was collected from across the country from 2005 to 2015 in nine high school sports: football, soccer, basketball, wrestling and baseball for boys, and soccer, basketball, volleyball and softball for girls. According to the report, in gender-matched sports, girls experienced much higher concussion rates than boys and were more common in girls soccer than any other sport.
Among the findings: While the total participation rate for the nine sports increased 1.04 fold, the number of diagnosed concussions increased 2.2 fold from 2005 to 2015. In gender matched sports, girls experienced significantly higher concussion rates than boys. 2010 to 2015, the concussion rate was higher in girls’ soccer than boys’ football, and during the 2014-2015 school year, concussions were more common in girls’ soccer than any other sport. Boys baseball and girls volleyball had the most significant increase in the rate of concussions during the 10-year study period.