Citation

Yaramothu C, Goodman AM, Alvarez TL. Brain Sci. 2019; 9(10): e9100257.

Affiliation

Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. tara.l.alvarez@njit.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Switzerland Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) AG)

DOI

10.3390/brainsci9100257

PMID

31569649

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Concussions are one of the most common head injuries acquired within the pediatric population. While sport-related concussions are well documented, concussions within other aspects of a child's life are not as well researched. The purpose of this study is to examine the incidence of a large pediatric concussion population in a broad range of daily activities.

METHODS: Patients' gender and nature of injury were extracted from 1408 medical records of patients who were diagnosed with a concussion at Saint Peter's Sports Medicine Institute. Statistical analyses were conducted for activities and environmental settings using chi-squared tests.

RESULTS: Concussions were most prevalent in organized sports (53.3%), followed by injuries within the following settings: school (16.5%), recreational (6.7%), motor vehicle collisions (6.6%), home (5.5%), and other (11.3%). Specifically, soccer (12.9%), school physical education (PE) class (10.6%), and football (9.8%) subcategories recorded the most incidences of concussion. For the PE class cohort (n = 149), significantly more females were diagnosed with a concussion compared to males (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: PE-related concussions had the second highest incidence rate after organized sports. A significant gender difference was observed in PE class. Awareness about concussions and methods to reduce the risk of concussion is suggested for PE classes.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent concussions; concussion epidemiology; concussions; physical education