Concussions in Children Less Likely to Be Related to Sport

FRIDAY, July 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) — For children aged 5 through 12 years with concussion, recreation-related concussion (RRC) and non-sport or recreation-related concussion (non-SRRC) occur more often than sport-related concussion (SRC), according to a study published online June 18 in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Patricia R. Roby, Ph.D., from the Children”s Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted an observational study including 1,141 patients aged 5 through 12 years presenting to a specialty care concussion setting at ≤28 days postinjury from 2018 to 2022 to examine the characteristics of SRC, RRC, and non-SRRC.

The most common mechanisms of concussion were RRC and non-SRRC (37.3 and 31.9 percent, respectively). The researchers found that compared with SRC, more non-SRRC and RRC were first seen in the emergency department (39.6 and 35.7 percent, respectively, versus 27.9 percent). Evaluation by specialists occurred two and three days later for patients with RRC and non-SRRC, respectively, than SRC. Higher symptom burden, more frequent visio-vestibular abnormalities, and more changes to sleep and daily habits were seen for patients with non-SRRC versus RRC and SRC.

“Equipping emergency department and primary care providers with up-to-date tools for concussion diagnosis and management as well as connecting with school personnel to create a concussion-aware community can help mitigate the potential for disparities generated by different patterns of care by injury mechanism,” the authors write.

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