A new study suggests that sports and sporting equipment are increasing traumatic brain injuries in children.
Traumatic brain injuries are a significant health concern and a new study reports a significant increase of injuries in children since 2000.
With an average of 308,000 annual cases, traumatic brain accidents have become much more prevalent in children ages zero to four and 15 to 19 impacting nearly 6.2 million children in the last 20 years. Typically these school-aged children played on a playground and participated in sports that involved equipment like bicycles, footballs, soccer balls, and basketballs.
Researchers have been investigating consumer product-related traumatic brain injuries (CP-TBI) for over 20 years. By differentiating between education level, age groups, and gender and evaluating trends with the time-point regression method, researchers could determine the data necessary for prevention methods and policies.
The research is a retrospective study and the Data were documented from a tertiary institute from January 2010 to March 2010. All variables were documented on standard proforma. The data were analyzed using R statistics software. The age group was categorized into pediatric (<18 years), middle (19–60 years), and elderly (>61 years). Significance was tested using the Chi-square test at the significance level.
Data of 1627 TBI patients were recorded. Of the total, female TBIs contributed nearly 20%.
Compared to males, female patients reported higher percentages in manifesting symptoms (84.3% vs. 82.6%), injuries due to fall (32.1% vs. 24.4%), and surgical interventions (11.6% vs. 10.4%). Female patients were significantly higher in mild head injury group (76.8% vs. 69.5%, P – 0.016) and mortality (3.4% vs. 1.6%, P – 0.048). Number of patients and deaths was more among females than males in pediatric and elderly age group. Severities of injuries were more among female patients than male patients in middle and elder age groups.
The study results observe that the female TBI group differs significantly in the severity of injury and mortality.
Parvathy Sukumaran 
