Kids' Concussion Rates May Be Higher Than Thought

Kids' Concussion Rates May Be Higher Than Thought

Study finds that most cases are first tended to at doctors' offices, not hospital ERs

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Because most young children who suffer a concussion aren't first seen in hospital emergency rooms, official tallies of these injuries may be greatly underreported, a new study finds.

"Four in five of this diverse group of children were diagnosed at a primary care practice -- not the emergency department," said study author Kristy Arbogast.

Also, "one-third were under age 12," she said, "and therefore represent an important part of the concussion population that is missed by existing surveillance systems that focus on high school athletes."

Arbogast is the co-scientific director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Her team examined data on nearly 8,100 children under the age of 18. All were examined for concussion in the hospital's network in southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey between 2010 and 2014.

Nearly 82 percent of the children underwent their first concussion visit in a primary care physician's office, not an ER, the study found. In fact, only about 12 percent had their first concussion-linked medical visit in an ER.

Age was a significant factor in all of this. According to the study, more than three-quarters of children ages 5 to 17 were first seen in primary care. For those ages age 4 and under, only 52 percent were first seen in an emergency department, the study found.

Kids with Medicaid coverage were more likely to make their first visit to an emergency department versus those insured in other ways, the research showed.

Based on their findings, the study authors believe that "efforts to measure the incidence of concussion cannot solely be based on emergency department visits, and primary care clinicians must be trained in concussion diagnosis and management."

As the authors noted in a hospital news release, bringing kids with a suspected concussion to a doctor's office isn't necessarily a bad idea. Arbogast's team said kids often get attended to faster in a doctor's office than in a crowded ER. That can mean more timely treatment, and most concussions will resolve within two to three weeks, the researchers said.

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