%0 Journal Article
%T Why are female soccer players experiencing a concussion more often than their male counterparts? A scoping review
%J Physical therapy in sport
%D 2021
%A Blyth, Rebecca Jane
%A Alcock, Mark
%A Tumilty, Dr Steve
%V ePub
%N 
%P ePub-ePub
%X Background The risk of concussion is particularly high in female soccer players. There is no consensus as to why female soccer players are at an elevated risk.  Objective To synthesise current evidence investigating reasons for the increased concussion rate in female soccer players.  Sources Searching of six databases (MEDLINE, Scopus, CINAHL, SportDiscus, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library) and grey literature was performed between 13/07/2020-31/07/2020. Keywords were concussion-related terms, terms relating to female football/soccer and terms relating to the mechanism/cause. No constraints were placed on publication date and quantitative or exploratory studies meeting inclusion criteria were eligible. Exclusion criteria were studies not published in English and qualitative studies.  Results Several hypotheses were identified to explain increased concussion rates in female soccer players, these include, reduced neck strength/anthropometrics, increased head acceleration, increased ball-to-head concussions, differences in hormones and brain structure/function, and reduced visual awareness.  Conclusion Promising ideas/reasons have been identified for increased concussion rates in female soccer players. Despite hypothesis generation there is scarce high-level evidence which is required to guide injury prevention and/or rule changes to protect female soccer players. The level of evidence for included studies is level 2-3 with most being observational cross-sectional or cohort studies.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Elsevier Publishing
%@ 1466-853X
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2021.08.001