Objective To apply different methodological approaches to quantify and compare head impact rates by gender for two seasons of high school varsity soccer.

Design Cross-sectional.

Setting Suburban high school.

Participants Adolescent soccer players on varsity teams at a single high school.

Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) Players wore headband-mounted head impact sensors (SIM-G, Triax Technologies) during competitive games for two seasons.

Outcome Measures Head impact exposure was measured as the number of head impacts per period of exposure (e.g. game, play, time). Head impacts were sensor-recorded events that were video confirmed. Five approaches to calculate period of exposure were explored: athlete presence, athlete participation, scheduled game time, individual play time, and absolute time.

Main Results Sensor data were recorded for 53 players (21 female) for 41 games. Video confirmation resulted in 1312 head impact events. Male head impact exposure rates were higher than female. Exposure rate per athlete participation was higher than the typical measure of exposure rate per athlete presence (Males: 3.2 impacts/AE_{Participation} > 2.5 impacts/AE_Presence, Females: 1.6 impacts/AE_{Participation} > 1.4 impacts/AE_Presence). Using time-based methods to calculate exposure led to varied results depending on the time measure used (Males: 2.7–3.8 impacts/player-hour, Females: 1.0–1.6 impacts/player-hour).

Conclusions Clear rate calculation methods are necessary to compare head impact exposure across studies and sports. Across all methods, male soccer players had a higher head impact rate than females; further research is necessary to reconcile these data with the increased concussion rate sustained by female soccer players.

This abstract has been published in full manuscript format and has the following citation: BMJ Citation https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/2021/06000/Variations_in_Head_Impact_Rates_in_Male_and_Female.16.aspx