Study: Concussion diagnoses among children and teenagers increased by 71% from 2010 through 2015

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bcbs-healthofamericareport-concussionsCon­cus­sion Diag­noses Among Youths Near­ly Dou­bled from 2010 to 2015 (Edu­ca­tion Week):

“Con­cus­sion diag­noses increased by 71 per­cent from 2010 through 2015 among chil­dren between the ages of 10 and 19, accord­ing to a new report from Blue Cross Blue Shield based on med­ical-claims data.

Over that six-year span, near­ly 940,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield mem­bers of all ages were diag­nosed with con­cus­sions, the report found, with the steep­est increase in diag­noses com­ing among those between 10 and 19 years old. In 2009, 8.9 chil­dren in that age range were diag­nosed with con­cus­sions per 1,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield mem­bers; by 2015, that num­ber had jumped up to 15.2. The great­est increase came between 2010 and 2013, which hap­pens to coin­cide with when a num­ber of states were pass­ing youth-con­cus­sion leg­is­la­tion for the first time.”

Study: THE STEEP RISE IN CONCUSSION DIAGNOSES IN THE U.S. (opens PDF)

  • From the Exec­u­tive Sum­ma­ry: Expan­sive news media cov­er­age of foot­ball-relat­ed con­cus­sions and state leg­is­la­tion aimed at pre­vent­ing par­tic­i­pants of youth sports from “shak­ing off” signs of head injuries have coin­cid­ed with a spike in the num­ber of con­cus­sion diag­noses, accord­ing to Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) com­pa­nies’ med­ical claims data. Con­cus­sion diag­noses increased 43 per­cent from 2010 through 2015 in the U.S. Addi­tion­al­ly, con­cus­sion diag­noses spiked 71 per­cent for patients ages 10 through 19 dur­ing the same time span…Finally, BCBS data in 2015 show that patients ages 10 through 19 in some states have near­ly a three times high­er rate of con­cus­sions diag­nosed than in oth­er states. The intent of this report is to doc­u­ment con­cus­sion diag­no­sis rates and increase aware­ness that could help inform pol­i­cy and con­cus­sion treat­ment prac­tices for school dis­tricts and med­ical professionals.

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