More Kids Suffer Sports-Related Head Injuries
October 8, 2011
Sports-related head injuries fueled almost a 60% increase in emergency department visits for nonfatal traumatic brain injury (TBI) during the past decade -- and kids were the most likely victims, CDC researchers have found.
During the period from 2001 to 2009, an estimated 173,000 children ages 5 to 18 were treated for traumatic brain injuries each year, and during the same period, annual emergency department visits for traumatic brain injuries regardless of age jumped from 153,375 to 248,418, according to Julie Gilchrist, MD, of the CDC's division of unintentional injury prevention, and colleagues, who reported their findings in the Oct. 7 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The analysis included all sports- and recreation-related injuries reported to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP), a database compiled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that includes data on all initial emergency department visits for treatment of injuries.
From 2001 through 2009, "an estimated 2,651,581 children ages ≤19 were treated annually for sports and recreation-related injuries. Approximately 6.5%, or 173,285 of these injuries, were [traumatic brain injuries]," they wrote.
During that period, the "rate of TBI visits increased 57%, from 190 per 100,000 population to 298."
Two activities -- bicycling and football -- were the most common activities associated with TBIs.
But in some sports that have fewer overall injuries -- horseback riding, ice skating, golfing, all-terrain vehicle riding, and tobogganing/sledding -- head injuries account for more than 10% of all injuries.

Read the rest of the article by clicking the link below.

Posted by Ken at 12:00 AM