Adding to this site’s data base of combat sports safety studies, a recent study was published in Brazil finding that the incidence of concussion for women in BJJ was twice as high as for men.
In the study, titled Women Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioners showed a higher incidence of concussion: an epidemiological analysis, the authors polled 779 BJJ practitioners. They were asked about incidence of concussion, symptoms and return to sport timelines. When breaking down the data by gender lines they found women reported concussions at a rate twice as high as men. With 41% of the participating women reporting a concussive injury in BJJ compared to 20% of the men,
The full study can be found here and the abstract reads as follows:
Knowledge about the prevalence of concussion in combat sports is important
information to keep athletes’ and practitioners’ physical integrity in different modalities
such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). Therefore, this study aimed to compare concussions
incidence in BJJ between men and women practitioners. A randomized sample of 779
(689 men and 90 women) BJJ practitioners (age: 32.4± 9.8 years, training-time: 57.3±
54.4 months, training frequency: 3.4± 1.3 times/week). The injury analysis was done
using a questionnaire with demographic data and asurvey about concussions. The main
results showed that women had a significantly higher frequency of concussions in
training than men [38 (41%) women vs 147 men (20,5%); p≤ 0.001]. Furthermore,
women had a significantly higher frequency of loss of consciousness than men [13
(8.8%) men vs 4 (11%) women; p= 0.009], among the symptoms resulting from a
concussion, headache, dizziness, and loss of balance, represented the most common
symptoms in those affected by concussion, regardless of gender. The results of this
study may be helpful to athletes, coaches, and federations to prevent this type of injury,
mainly in women.
Combat Sports Law 