The Burden of Pediatric Concussions

Many measures of how often children get concussions are based on emergency department visit data, but that may not be the most accurate way to measure, a new study found.

This study, conducted at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, found that many children were diagnosed with a concussion at places other than the emergency department, such as at primary care sites and specialty care offices.

That could mean that more kids get concussions than previously thought, these researchers said.

In fact, 82 percent of the children diagnosed with a concussion during this study were diagnosed at a primary care site — not an emergency department.

These researchers also found that nearly a third of the children with concussions in this study were younger than 12. That could be significant because much pediatric concussion research looks at high school-age students.

This study was published recently in JAMA Pediatrics.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia supported this study. The authors disclosed no conflicts of interest.