Visits to pediatric emergency departments for headache pain in children are on the rise
Researchers from the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC used data from the electronic medical record to analyze their hospital's emergency department visits for headache pain in children ages 4 to 20 years, from 2007 to 2014. They then randomly selected 50 headache visits per year and examined patient data making sure to include variables such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, chief complaint, head injury within 48 hours, history of concussion, and past medical history. Between 2007 and 2014 at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, pediatric emergency department visits for headaches doubled from 2 percent to more than 4 percent, said primary study author Michelle Perry, MD, pediatric resident at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC . During this same time period, the admission rate for children with headache more than doubled from 10 percent of headache visits in 2007 to 24 percent in 2014. Females were more likely to be admitted for headache pain th...