School-Age Children Treated Most Often for Sports-Related Concussions

AHRQ News and Numbers

Release date: May 25, 2011

About 39,000 school-age children were treated for sports-related concussions at hospital emergency departments in 2008—approximately 90 percent of all emergency visits for that condition, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Children ages 14 to 18 (high-school age) represented 58 percent of the emergency visits treated for a sports-related concussion, 17 percent were between the age of 11 and 13 (middle-school age), 7 percent were 6 to 10 years old (elementary-school age), and 8 percent were 19 to 23 years old (college age).

The Federal agency also found that among patients treated for sports-related concussions in 2008:

• About 12 percent experienced a moderate or prolonged loss of consciousness, while 21 percent had a brief loss of consciousness. More than half of all patients (52 percent) did not lose consciousness.
• Males accounted for more than three-quarters of patients (78 percent) treated in the emergency department for sports-related concussions.
• People treated for concussions typically also received care for other injuries, including less severe injuries such as pulled muscles and sprains, and more severe injuries such as skull fractures.
• The vast majority of patients (95 percent) did not have to be admitted into the hospital.

This AHRQ News and Numbers summary is based on data from Statistical Brief #114: Sports Related Concussions, 2008. The report uses data from the Agency's 2008 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. For information about this AHRQ database, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/datahcup.htm.

For other information, or to speak with an AHRQ data expert, please contact Bob Isquith at Bob.Isquith@ahrq.hhs.gov or call (301) 427-1539.

Current as of May 2011

Internet Citation:

School-Age Children Treated Most Often for Sports-Related Concussions. AHRQ News and Numbers, May 25, 2011. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/nn/nn052511.htm