AHRQ Stats: Emergency Care for Children’s Sports Injuries

Children with sports injuries sought treatment in emergency departments (EDs) more than 1.5 million times in 2013. Among boys under age 18, the leading cause was American tackle football (16 percent of all sports injuries in the ED for this age group). For girls in the same age group, the main cause was physical activity associated with school recess and summer camp (13 percent). (Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #207: Sports-Related Emergency Department Visits and Hospital Inpatient Stays, 2013.)

Sports-Related Emergency Department Visits and Hospital Inpatient Stays, 2013

Audrey J. Weiss, Ph.D., and Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D.

Highlights

The most common sports-related reasons for hospital use were bicycling, and walking, marching, and hiking. In 2013, bicycling accounted for 383,790 ED visits and 26,530 hospital stays. Walking, marching, and hiking resulted in 340,290 ED visits and 30,650 hospital stays.

Other top-ranked reasons for sport-related hospital use were basketball, football, school recess and summer camp, running, roller skating and skateboarding, soccer (ED only), baseball (ED only), downhill skiing and snowboarding (inpatient only), and horseback riding (inpatient only).

Among children, the most common sports-related reasons for hospital stays and ED visits included American tackle football (boys only), bicycle riding, and school recess and summer camp activities.

Bicycle riding was the most common sports-related reason for hospital stays and ED visits among males aged 18-64 years and females aged 18-44 years (inpatient only). Walking, marching, and hiking was the most common sports-related reason among males aged 65+ years and females aged 18-44 years (ED only) and 45+ years.

Sport-related hospital stays were primarily for fractures (59 percent of all sports-related stays) and intracranial injury (11 percent). Sports-related ED visits were for sprains (24 percent of all sports-related ED visits), fractures (21 percent), superficial injuries (18 percent), and open wounds (12 percent).