SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
ER Visits for Concussions Soar Among Child Athletes
from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
The number of children in the U.S. seeking emergency medical care for concussions incurred playing competitive sports more than doubled in the five years leading up to 2005, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Much of that increase came not from high school athletes who have been the mainstay of emergency-room visits for concussions, but from middle-schoolers and even elementary school students who have flocked to play on elite travel teams and in competitive youth leagues across the country. Fully 40% of the sports-related pediatric concussion patients seen in ERs were between the ages of 8 and 13, the study found.
Strikingly, the increase in concussions came against the backdrop of declining participation in organized sports among youth in those years, noted the research team from Rhode Island.
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