Kids and concussions
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Children account for 90 percent of hospital emergency room visits for sports-related concussions. Analysts with HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, found this in the agency's 2008 emergency department database.
AHRQ's Claudia Steiner says people treated for concussions commonly had other injuries, generally less severe ones like pulled muscles, but sometimes more severe, such as skull fractures.
About 12 percent experienced a moderate or prolonged loss of consciousness, and 21 percent experienced a brief loss.
And Steiner says:
``Fortunately, only a small percentage of those treated for sports-related concussions in the emergency department had to be admitted to the hospital.'' (8 seconds)
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.