Author Interviews, Brain Injury, Pediatrics / 31.05.2016
Pediatric Concussions Underestimated as Primary Care Presentations Not Reported
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kristy Arbogast, PhD
Co-Scientific Director
Center for Injury Research and Prevention
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Research Professor
Division of Emergency Medicine
Department of Pediatrics
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Arbogast: The research team looked retrospectively at four recent years of data on children diagnosed with concussion at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to determine how children access the health system for a concussion. For those 8,000 kids with a CHOP primary care provider, 82% entered the health system via a primary care location, 12% entered through the ER and 5% through a specialist. One-third of concussion diagnoses were to children under age 12.
Many current counts of concussion injury among children are based on emergency room visits or organized high school and college athletics data. Thus, we are vastly underestimating child and youth concussions in the US.
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