Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jul 18:bjsports-2021-105045.
doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2021-105045. Online ahead of print.

Under-representation of female athletes in research informing influential concussion consensus and position statements: an evidence review and synthesis

Christopher D'Lauro  1 , Emily Ruth Jones  2   3 , Lily Mc Swope  2   4 , Melissa N Anderson  5   6   7 , Steven Broglio  8 , Julianne D Schmidt  6   7
Affiliations
Review

Under-representation of female athletes in research informing influential concussion consensus and position statements: an evidence review and synthesis

Christopher D'Lauro et al. Br J Sports Med. .

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to quantify the female athlete composition of the research data informing the most influential consensus and position statements in treating sports-related concussions.

Design: We identified the most influential concussion consensus and position statements through citation and documented clinician use; then, we analysed the percentage of male and female athletes from each statement's cited research.

Data sources: We searched PubMed on 26 August 2021 with no date restrictions for English language studies using the terms 'concussion position statement' and 'concussion consensus statement.'

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Based on each statement having multiple statement editions, documented clinician use, and substantial citation advantages, we selected the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA, 2014), International Conference on Concussion in Sport (ICCS, 2017) and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM, 2019). We extracted all cited studies from all three papers for assessment. For each paper analysing human data, at least two authors independently recorded female athlete participant data.

Results: A total of 171 distinct studies with human participants were cited by these three consensus and position papers and included in the female athlete analyses (93 NATA; 13 ICCS; 65 AMSSM). All three statements documented a significant under-representation of female athletes in their cited literature, relying on samples that were overall 80.1% male (NATA: 79.9%, ICCS: 87.8 %, AMSSM: 79.4%). Moreover, 40.4% of these studies include no female participants at all.

Conclusion: Female athletes are significantly under-represented in the studies guiding clinical care for sport-related concussion for a broad array of sports and exercise medicine clinicians. We recommend intentional recruitment and funding of gender diverse participants in concussion studies, suggest authorship teams reflect diverse perspectives, and encourage consensus statements note when cited data under-represent non-male athletes.

Keywords: brain concussion; consensus; public health; research; women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: CD'L, JDS and ERJ have previously received grant funding from the US Department of Defense and the National Collegiate Athletic Association through the Mind Matters Challenge Award. JDS and CD'L have also received current or pending funding from the US Department of Defense. SB has current or past research funding from the National Institutes of Health; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Department of Defense-USA Medical Research Acquisition Activity, National Collegiate Athletic Association; National Athletic Trainers’ Association Foundation; National Football League/Under Armour/GE; Simbex; and ElmindA. He is coauthor of Biomechanics of Injury (3rd edition, Human Kinetics) and he has consulted for US Soccer (paid), US Cycling (unpaid), medicolegal litigation and received speaker honorarium and travel reimbursements for talks given. He is coauthor of ‘Biomechanics of Injury (third edition)’ and has a patent pending on ‘Brain Metabolism Monitoring Through CCO Measurements Using All-Fiber-Integrated Super-Continuum Source’ (US Application No. 17/164,490). This work does not necessarily represent the views of the US Air Force Academy, US Air Force or the US Department of Defense.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

LinkOut - more resources