THE INCIDENCE OF CONCUSSION AND SYMPTOM NON-REPORTING AMONG PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY PLAYERS

BACKGROUND: Female hockey players have rates of sports-related concussion that are similar to male hockey players at various levels of play, despite differences in the rules that do not allow for body checking in the women’s game. One proposed hypothesis is that females are more likely than their male counterparts to report concussion symptoms to a coach or medical professional. At the elite level, there are limited data regarding concussion rates and concussion symptom reporting. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of concussion and concussion symptom reporting in professional women’s ice hockey players. METHODS: An anonymous survey was given to players of two National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) teams at the time of their 2018-2019 end-of-season physicals. Players reported on the number of concussions in their career diagnosed by a physician, the number of times they have had concussion symptoms, how many times they continued playing after experiencing concussion symptoms, how many times they never told a medical professional or coach after having symptoms, and how many times they eventually disclosed their symptoms. RESULTS: Fifty-four players anonymously completed the survey. Thirty-one(57%) of respondents reported at least one concussion diagnosed during their playing career, with 16(30%) reporting 2 or more diagnosed concussions. Thirty-six(67%) players reported experiencing concussion symptoms at least once, with 26(48%) reporting 2 or more occurrences of such symptoms. Of these players, 68% reported that they continued playing at least once after experiencing concussion symptoms. 36% of those players reported that they never told anyone about these symptoms on at least one occasion. Forty-four(81%) players either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I’m more likely to report concussion symptoms knowing what I know now.” CONCLUSION: There is a high incidence of sport related concussions in women’s professional ice hockey players as well as an alarming rate of symptom non-reporting. More than half of players experience at least one concussion during their career, with more than two-thirds of these continuing to play despite having concussion-related symptoms and more than one-third of these never reporting the concussion symptoms at all. Additional research is needed to determine the reasons for the high rates of concussion in women’s ice hockey players despite the no-checking policy; the motivation for not disclosing concussion symptoms when they occur; and the effects that concussion education has had on changing symptom reporting behaviors for ice hockey players at the elite level.