Female soccer players lead all high school athletes in concussions, according to a report from the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

High school female athletes, in general, suffered concussions at a "significantly higher" rate than boys. The study presented suggests a lack of protective gear in high school soccer as a potential cause for the greater risk of concussions.

The research was presented at the AAOS' annual meeting in mid-March. It reviewed injury data from between 2005 and 2015, which were the years before traumatic brain injury laws came into play nationwide (2005-2009), and the years when they were in effect in all 50 states and D.C. (2010-2015).

"While American football has been both scientifically and colloquially associated with the highest concussion rates, our study found that girls, and especially those who play soccer, may face a higher risk," Wellington Hsu, professor of orthopedics at Northwestern University and lead author of the study, said in a news release. "The new knowledge presented in this study can lead to policy and prevention measures to potentially halt these trends."

The data focused on football, soccer, basketball, wrestling, baseball, softball and volleyball. According to the release, athletic trainers recorded 40,843 injuries to high school athletes during this time which includes 6,399 concussions.

Participation rate increased 1.04 fold in the 10-year period, and with that, diagnosed concussions jumped 2.2 fold between 2005-2015, the study reports. The biggest jump in the decade studied came in baseball and volleyball.

"Overall, the rise in concussion rates reflects the enactment and enforcement of TBI laws throughout the U.S., which have led to greater awareness of concussions by first responders--coaches, parents and athletic trainers--as well as better recognition of symptoms by players and a more open culture of communication within teams and school," the AAOS release reads.