Female athletes suffer more concussions than male athletes playing the same sports at both the college and high school levels, according to an upcoming study in the Journal of Athletic Training.TCU team physician Dr. Sam Haraldson defined concussion as “a complex patho-physiological process affecting the brain induced by traumatic biomechanical forces.”

Haraldson said the majority of female concussions at TCU occur in soccer and basketball as the result of player-to-player contact.

Concussions have risen 7 percent per year since 1988, while other sports-related injuries have remained constant or dropped, according to the study. The study shows female soccer players are twice as likely as males to report a concussion. Female basketball players are 24 percent more likely to report concussions than males.

According to 2005 data from the NCAA and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, female soccer players averaged 2.3 concussions per 1,000 exposures in matches compared to 1.24 concussions per 1,000 exposures for their male counterparts. Practices have females getting 0.29 concussions per 1,000 exposures while males average 0.15 concussions under the same conditions.

The basketball numbers from the same data follow the trend. Females average 0.91 concussions per 1,000 exposures in games compared to 0.69 concussions per 1,000 exposures for males. Practice yields 0.48 concussions per 1,000 exposures for females and 0.35 concussions per 1,000 exposures for males.

Haraldson classified concussions into two groups: simple and complex. He said a simple concussion clears up in seven to 10 days, and he said any one beyond that time is considered complex.

Haraldson said nationally, soccer has the highest rate of concussions for a female sport.

Lauren Crawford, trainer for the soccer team, said some reasons concussions are rising might be more research and increased education. More articles on concussions have appeared in the previous five years than in the five decades before that, neurologists said in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education..

“There’s just a greater awareness with athletic trainers and with coaches and with doctors,” Crawford said. “Getting your bell rung isn’t necessarily a minor thing anymore.

That’s going to mean, most of the time, you have a concussion. We’re talking to our athletes a lot more about this.”

More female athletes participating in college sports will naturally lead to an increased number of concussions, Haraldson said.

Crawford said she couldn’t say definitively whether more concussions happened in practice or in matches during the 2007 season.

Dani Parmenter, the women’s basketball team’s trainer, said she has seen more concussions in practices as opposed to games. She said there were either four or five concussions on the basketball team last season.

“They’re going for drills more, there’s more repetition, they’re just doing a lot more,” Parmenter said. “They have a higher chance of getting that contact that causes a concussion.”

In soccer, concussions usually happen when a player is attempting to head a ball and accidently knocks the head of another player on the way into the air, Crawford said.

“The actual heading of the ball has very little to do with getting a concussion, I would say,” Crawford said. “It’s when they’re going up, and if there are two people going for a ball, it’s the other person knocking their head.”

Crawford said concussions can also occur if an athlete gets pushed over and hits the ground or takes an elbow or knee to the head.

Crawford said headaches, nausea and an inability to place herself at practice or a match are the symptoms she sees most often. Haraldson officially diagnoses the concussion, she said.

“Athletic trainers are kind of like my eyes and ears and are also trained to recognize the symptoms of concussion,” Haraldson said. “They obviously find more than I do because they spend more time with the athlete.”

After a concussion, Parmenter said the athlete must have no symptoms for 24 hours before they are gradually returned to action. It is at least a seven-day process, that includes riding a recumbent bike for 20 minutes, doing a “sport-related activity,” such as dribbling or passing, drills without contact, practice without contact and then returning to a full practice, Parmenter said. The next day, the player may return to competition, Parmenter said.

Three soccer players, whom head coach Dan Abdalla wanted to remain anonymous because of medical privacy, said they all were attempting to head balls, but accidently made contact with another player’s head, resulting in a concussion.

A sophomore player said she had trouble concentrating, and a freshman player said her neck was sore afterward. A New York Times article suggests the strength of a female’s neck muscles compared to a male’s might be one reason for the higher susceptibility to concussions.

Another freshman player said she had suffered three concussions, two in high school and one in college. Two were in soccer matches and the other was in a basketball game, she said.

According to the New York Times and ABC News, female athletes get 68 percent more soccer concussions and three times more basketball concussions than their male counterparts in high school. Crawford, who worked at a high school last year, said it should be noted that high schools usually have a freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams, so they will have more athletes than a college team.

Parmenter said an athlete’s concussion history can impact her concussion severity and recovery time in the future.

“I don’t know that it has much impact whether you’re a female or a male,” Parmenter said. “What seems to have the most impact is the number of concussions that you’ve had before. If you’ve had more concussions, it usually takes you longer to recover then it does a person who hasn’t had any concussions or just simple ones.”

The freshman who suffered three concussions said she thought her second and third concussions were more severe than the first one.

“The second one was the worst one, and the third one became worse because the second one was so severe,” she said. “It made my symptoms worse and it made them last longer.”

According to the same New York Times article, some athletes use padded headbands to prevent concussions, but the article states they have not been proven to lessen the impact of concussions.

The freshman went on to say she would agree the headbands do not work because they only cover the front part of the head.

“It may keep you from busting your head open, but concussion-wise, your brain is still going to bounce around.” she said.

Haraldson said no soccer or basketball players are currently using any headgear.

Head women’s basketball coach Jeff Mittie did not want his players to comment for this article, citing medical privacy.