Do High School Girls Ignore Concussions?
Is it true that high school girls don’t take concussions serious? Study reports that most of them do not mention symptoms associated with concussions to coaches and doctors, a real indication that high school girls ignore concussions.
A study published on Thursday in the Journal of Trauma Nursing found out that almost half of girls who participate in high school sports do not report sports-related concussion injuries to their trainers and coaches.
Ideally, Tracy McDonald, lead author of the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City conforms to this study, and according to her, more than a few student athletes do not even realize they have concussions.
And when they do, most of them don’t bother to report the matter, so they can be helped accordingly, says McDonald in a press release.
To check if most high school girls truly ignore concussions, researchers conducted a survey on 77 female athletes. In the survey, they checked on head injuries and concussion symptoms. Thirty-one of the 77 said they suspected they had suffered from a concussion, and 10 of them did not talk it over with their coaches or trainers. According to them, the complication was not a big deal and they wanted to continue playing.
Fifty-eight said they had experienced symptoms related to a concussion but they did not associate the symptoms with the complication.
Concussion is most common among basketball athletes, followed by soccer players. And its most likely symptoms include headache and dizziness, although the affected person can also experience such symptoms as sensitivity to light or noise and blurred vision. According to 10-percent of athletes surveyed, symptoms related to concussions took a week or longer.
The authors concluded that their findings show athletes just do not understand the risks associated with this complication.
In 2012, some 3.8 million Americans had concussions. Well, that is two times the number reported in 2002, reports Prevacus, concussion treatment company.
Additionally, 300,000 concussions are suffered every year at the high school level. Of that, 47-percent (almost half of that number) occur among football athletes. Around 11% of high school players have had previous concussions.
A study published in the Winter 2007-08 Journal of Athletic Training, showed that girls have weaker neck muscles than boys, and this makes them more susceptible to concussions than their counterparts.
Motor vehicle crashes is the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries among people aged between 15 and 24 years, and it is closely followed by sports.
Nevertheless, we cannot avoid sports for the fear of sustaining traumatic brain injuries. Instead, we should focus on ways to reduce complications that are caused by sports. And this can be achieved by educating athletes on the risk associated with this complication. We should encourage them to communicate with their parents, coaches, and trainers if they notice anything unusual.
By so doing this, we’ll be able to deal with the problem at its early stage. This may not be an easy journey, especially at the beginning; hence, a lot of effort needs to be exerted. Today, concussions are on the rise, but the good news is, the complication can be subdued by creating awareness and making sure each of us has in-depth knowledge about concussions.