Any childhood trauma, and especially head trauma, frightens parents with its long-term consequences. A new study published in the medical journal Pediatrics may offer some relief to worried adults.
Findings from emergency department visits in children's hospitals in Canada and the United States show that concussion in children, it does not have a clinically significant effect on IQ and intelligence. The study compared American and Canadian children aged 8 to 16—566 children with concussion and 300 children with orthopedic injuries.
“Obviously, the impact of concussion on children was of great concern, and one of The biggest question was whether it affects the overall intellectual functioning of the child,” notes Dr. Keith Yates, Ph.D., professor in the Calgary Department of Psychology.
Combining the Canadian and US cohorts gave the pediatric study a large sample and allowed Yates and co-authors from the Universities of Edmonton, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Atlanta, Utah, and Ohio, and Mount Royal University in Calgary to test patients with a wide range of demographic and clinical characteristics.
“We looked at socioeconomic status, patient gender, injury severity, history of concussion, and whether there was loss of consciousness at the time of the injury,” says Yates. “None of those factors mattered. Across the board, concussion has not been associated with lower IQ.»