Most Children with Concussions Present to Primary Care Settings

As concussion awareness has risen, clinical and research efforts have focused on adolescents in organized sports who present to emergency departments (EDs) or sports medicine clinics. Patterns of presentation for concussion care across a broader age range of youth and across different health care settings are lacking.

An analysis of an integrated electronic health record system from a large pediatric healthcare network (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) showed that 8083 children aged 0–17 years presented with concussion from 2010 to 2014. Age at initial visit for concussion varied widely (0–4 years, 5%; 5–11 years, 31%; 12–14 years, 35%, and 15–17 years, 30%), and over 80% of patients presented to primary care settings. Only 12% presented…