High School Athletes Also Take Longer Than College Athletes to Recover, Researchers Find
Girls take longer to recover from sports-related concussions than boys do, according to new research.
High school athletes, both boys and girls, also have longer recovery times than do college athletes, says researcher Tracey Covassin, PhD, associate professor of kinesiology and a certified athletic trainer at Michigan State University.
"We have known that high school kids will take longer," Covassin tells WebMD. "We are starting to show there are differences between female and male athletes."
Covassin's study evaluated 222 high school and college athletes who had sustained a concussion.
After a concussion, females also did worse than males on visual memory tests. They had more symptoms, Covassin found.
The study is published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine.
Concussion: The Problem
A concussion, a type of traumatic brain injury, results from an impact to the head. Those affected can have headaches, concentration problems, memory and balance problems, blurry vision, and nausea.
A concussion changes the way your brain functions, according to the CDC. It can occur even with a helmet on. Most do not involve loss of consciousness.
