According to a recently published paper, head injuries in children evolve just as they do.
The Evolution of Children and Head Injuries
A baby starts out small - crawling and learning to walk. Soon enough, they’re adolescents - learning to drive. But just as they evolve into doing more and more things, so do the reasons for head injuries. Thus, it makes sense that smaller children suffer head injuries from falling, while teenagers are more at rush for head injuries that occur art the result of car accidents and sports injuries.
Study of Head Injuries - Children to Teenager
According to the authors of a paper recently published in the _New England Journal of Medicine, _the evolution of head injuries follow the evolution of how we grow. The authors analyzed data from 43,000 children who had been admitted to emergency rooms as the result of blunt force head trauma between 2004 and 2006. Top causes of head injuries in children under the age of 2 were all fall related. And for children between 2 and 12, top causes were also fall related - mostly falls from a height.
But they noticed that as children evolve into teenagers (ages 13-17 according to the study), the causes for head injuries changed to assault (24% of injuries), sports injuries (19% of injuries) and car accidents (18% of injuries).
Importance of Study
Understanding this evolution is important, because head injuries can lead to traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBIs are the leading cause of death and disabilities in children over one year. But what to do with this data?
This data can be used to help support the importance of wearing helmets and seat belts, or car seats.
Dr. Kimberly Quayle, pediatrician at the Washington University School of Medicine and one of the authors of the study, say this data can help to pinpoint age-specific injury-prevention measures, including reminding teens of the importance of wearing a safety belt when driving. We don’t need to invent new ways of protecting ourselves, Quayle said, rather, it’s just a matter of “continuing to be vigilant about the things we already know are there.”
If you or a family member have been injured by a traumatic brain injury, you need the expert advice of lawyers such as those at Personal Injury Attorneys PLLC.
