Concussion History, Mental Health, and Attention-Related Errors among Female Amateur MMA Fighters at the 2019 IMMAF European Championship: A Descriptive Study

Increasingly, women are training and competing in mixed martial arts (MMA). Women are, however, hugely underrepresented in the research literature.

 The purpose of this brief report was to assess concussion knowledge, mental health and attention-related errors among female MMA competitors and factors that might affect data quality when doing a study during a competition.

Forty-one athletes participated at different stages (mean age 25.2±.5). Pre-fight, participants were asked about their concussion history, both before and after being given a definition. They answered questions about MMA background and completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the General Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-7, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21, the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool-5 (also completed post-fight), and the Sustained Attention Response Task. Two weeks later, competitors were asked to answer mental health questionnaires and the concussion symptom scale again.

Mean years in MMA were 7.3±5.5. Before reading a concussion definition, 16.7% reported a concussion history, 30.6% reported a concussion history after reading the definition. The error score on the attention response task was 12.12±6.55. Pre-fight, the SCAT5 score was 9.0±8.6, post-fight it was 9.1±6.8, and two weeks later, 7.3±11.2. Scores on mental health scales were between 3.9-5.9±3.7-4.6 pre-fight and between 4.3-6.1±5.9-10 two weeks later.

The change in concussion reporting indicates a lack of knowledge; scores on symptoms scales and attention test did not indicate problems. Factors affecting side-line evaluation included coaches' willingness to participate and the athletes' emotional state. Significant limitations of this study included possible language barriers. Therefore, results should be interpreted with caution.