Original title: Emergency Department burden and factors associated with non-routine Emergency Department disposition for sports-related head and neck injuries among people aged 5–24 years in the United States, 2015–2025: a NEISS-based repeated cross-sectional study
Researchers used U.S. emergency department records from 2015 to 2025 to study sports-related head and neck injuries in people aged 5 to 24. They estimated that these injuries led to about 5.18 million ED visits. A non-routine dispositionAn ED outcome other than routine release, defined here as transfer, admission, observation, or death. meant transfer, hospital admission, observation, or death. Team and ball sports accounted for the most visits, but motorized and wheeled activities had higher odds of non-routine disposition among people who came to the ED. The study counts ED visits; it does not measure injury risk for everyone who takes part in a sport.
Imagine a school nurse tracking sports injuries across a year. One activity might bring in the most students, while another brings in fewer but more often leads to a trip to the hospital. In this paper, the number of nurse visits matches the total ED burden, and the share needing more care matches non-routine disposition.
For young people and the adults who organize their sports, injury counts and the chance of needing more than routine ED care tell different stories. Team and ball sports accounted for the largest ED burden, while motorized and wheeled activities had higher proportions of non-routine dispositions among treated cases.
The study covers ED-treated records, not all sports injuries or the number of people participating in each activity. It therefore does not estimate sport-specific incidence or participant-level injury risk. Its estimates rely on the stated case definition and NEISS data; the abstract does not report other limitations.
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Emergency Department burden and factors associated with non-routine Emergency Department disposition for sports-related head and neck injuries among people aged 5–24 years in the United States, 2015–2025: a NEISS-based repeated cross-sectional study — Yu Zang — Scientific Reports — doi:10.1038/s41598-026-72049-1
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.