Head Injuries Increasing in Children

A report from the CDC shows that the number of head injuries in children increased by 62% between 2001 and 2009, and the rate (number of visits per 100,000 children) rose by 57%. However, most of this increase is likely due to increased recognition of the seriousness of head injuries and a higher percentage of children seeking medical care when injured. The most common activities resulting in ER visits for head injury were football, basketball, soccer, playground injuries and bicycling. These were simply the most common, not the highest risk activities; in other words, injuries from these could be more common simply because more children do these activities. The activities where an injury was more likely to be a head injury compared with other injuries were horseback riding, ice skating, golf (including golf carts), ATV riding, and sledding. The highest rates of injury were among males 10-19 years of age.