New research revealed how most children sustain damaging head injuries that lead to brain injury.
The researchers found falls were most common in children of the age of 12 or younger and accounted for at least 77 percent of head injuries under the age of 2, Washington University in St. Louis reported. In children between the age of 2 and 12 falls were associated with about 38 percent of head injuries. In children of the age of 13 and above the cause of head injury was more varied.
"Head injuries in adolescents most often were caused by assaults, sports activities and motor-vehicle crashes," said author Kimberly S. Quayle, professor of pediatrics at Washington University.
Out of the head injuries sustained by children between the ages of 13 and 17, 24 percent were a result of assault; 19 percent were sports related and 18 percent were from car accidents. Among children who suffered brain injuries as a result of motor-vehicle accidents, fewer than half were wearing seatbelts.
These findings could help policymakers take steps towards preventing these types of debilitating injuries, which are the leading cause of death and medical complications in children older than 1 year old.
"We have distilled a wide range of important features regarding blunt head trauma in children," Quayle said. "The findings may provide reliable guideposts in developing injury-prevention measures and should help physicians in diagnosing and treating these injuries based on strong evidence."
The findings were made using data from 25 U.S. hospitals that were collected between 2004 and 2006.
"The detailed information from this very large prospective study is not available from any other source," said senior author Nathan Kuppermann, professor and chair of emergency medicine at UC Davis and principal investigator of the initial study. "It is a gold mine of information, providing a detailed descry
The findings were published Nov. 13 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
