Young female rugby league players more at risk of head knocks

A James Cook University study has found young female rugby league players have double the average number of concussions than older age groups of both sexes.

JCU student Catherine de Hollander analysed Queensland Rugby League head injury assessment data on under 17 and 19 players from 2023 and 2024 as part of her PhD measuring the impact of collisions on women’s short and long-term health.

“Our findings are that younger female players are more at risk for concussion than their male counterparts and older players,” Ms de Hollander said.

“These results are a good baseline for implementing prevention strategies in the sport and for identifying what groups are most at risk, and what are the age and gender-specific risk factors we can mitigate.”

Ms de Hollander said rugby league was one of the fastest growing sports for women, making documented knowledge on its risks critical.

“We really do need further in-depth research, because there isn’t a lot of information about the prevalence and impact of concussion in women’s sport,” she said.

“Females make up less than 20 per cent of all concussion research and adolescent females even less.

“Our findings suggest age could definitely be a factor, but we’re not sure yet whether these young women are just reporting more or if they are physically more susceptible.”

Ms de Hollander’s next priority is to develop a better test for concussion, because she said it could be subjective and was reliant on individuals’ self-reporting.

“A lot of people second guess whether or not they’re concussed, and if they go back on the field too soon they’re at risk for things like second impact syndrome that can be fatal,” she said.

“We’re trialing instrumented mouth guards which record data like acceleration, velocity and direction of impact in real time.

“We’re also looking for a saliva biomarker for concussion to see if that can help identify it, but we need more funding to carry out that analysis.

“My hope is that these findings will help in the creation of targeted prevention strategies like tackle education, limiting contact or neck strengthening, as well as contributing to research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is increasingly in the spotlight.”

She said the work would not have been possible without the support of the QRL.

“The QRL has been amazing throughout my PhD and really want this research to progress to allow them to do anything they can to reduce the risk for all their players,” she said.

The research was published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.