Apart from adult athletes, professionals and recreational players, children, too, can be at a risk of concussions too, regardless of whether they play a sport or not. However, the number of pediatric concussions is currently highly underestimated in the United States (US).
These are the findings of a new report published jointly by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. According to the report, kids who play or hoarse around with their friends may be at a greater risk of concussions than previously estimated.
During the study, the CDC and CHOP researchers analyzed over 8,000 concussions-related electronic health records maintained during a period of four years. The health record belonged to children aged up to 17 years.
Among all the subjects, 82 percent has their first diagnosis of concussion at an a primary care location. In addition, 5 percent of the kids were diagnosed at the trauma centers and sports medicine facilities. Surprisingly, only 12 percent of the records pointed to the diagnosis being done in an emergency room.
Even then, according to the authors, the current estimations of pediatric concussions are based on the data. This depicts how children and youth concussion in the injury in the US remains vastly underestimating. The authors talked about concluding two things from their study findings.
"First, four in five of this diverse group of children were diagnosed at a primary care practice - not the emergency department," Dr. Kristy Arbogast, lead researcher, EurekAlert has learned. "Second, one-third were under age 12, and therefore represent an important part of the concussion population that is missed by existing surveillance systems that focus on high school athletes."
Early diagnosis is one of the key factors that determines how effective concussion treatment could be. Therefore, primary care physicians are at an added advantage since they can diagnose and treat injured patients sooner that specialized doctors.
Primary care physicians can easily handle concussion patients by advising physical and cognitive rest. In case the symptoms tend to remain for more than two to three weeks, the patients can be referred to a specialized doctor.
The following video examines the truth about concussions: