Monkey bars, playground gyms and swings were most frequently linked to these accidents. Of nearly 215,000 children on average treated yearly, nearly 10 percent – about 21,000 annually – had traumatic brain injuries including concussions.
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The injuries were mainly mild, but researchers said the all concussions can be serious. It could also suggest more use of playground equipment.
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“A rise in the rates of traumatic brain injury should concern everybody because traumatic brain injury is a public health burden”, given how common it is, said Beno. More than half of them were between the ages of five and nine years old.
The authors stress that most children do not have long-lasting injuries, with the overwhelming majority of these pediatric patients, 95.6 percent, were treated and released from the hospital without further care. Mostly, children are able to recover, but repeated blows to the head have been associated with brain damage.
It’s no surprise that monkey bars are one of the culprits, but the other piece of equipment causing the most danger: swing sets.
“If the child’s able to get up and move around and is doing okay, watching for signs like nausea, vomiting, dizziness, are they acting themselves?”
The researchers said adult supervision is key to helping prevent these injuries.
“Anytime that we go to the playground I think any mom is just kind of watching and always trying to make sure that their not getting a little too insane falling, bumping heads, but I think no matter how much you watch them or protective you are of them…they always tend to –something happens”, Barajas said.
The City of Columbus tells 10TV that it follows the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines when building playgrounds and that the commission recommends that children not wear bicycle helmets on the playground for protection – instead it increases the size of the child’s head, making them more susceptible to head entrapment.
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