Abstract

Objective

To evaluate patterns of health care utilization for sports-related concussions (SRCs) and non-sports-related concussions (NSRCs) among Medicaid-insured children before and after the enactment of Ohio’s concussion law in April 2013.

Methods

We analyzed claim data from the Partners For Kids (PFK) Ohio Medicaid database. Concussion diagnoses were identified between April 1, 2008 and June 30, 2017. We compared frequency of concussions by age and sex across the law period. We evaluated type of health care utilization before and after law enactment using multinomial logistic regression.

Results

Over the 9 year study period, 6157 concussions were included, most of which (70.4%) were NSRCs. The proportion of SRCs increased with age. Among children younger than 5 years old, the majority (96.1%) of concussions were NSRCs. During the post-law period, greater odds of primary care visits than emergency department (ED) visits were observed for both SRCs (OR = 1.53; 95% CI 1.34, 1.75) and NSRCs (OR = 1.73; 95% CI 1.58, 1.90) compared to the pre-law period.

Conclusions

We observed higher proportions of health care utilization for NSRCs than SRCs in Medicaid insured children and a shift in health care utilization from the ED to primary care in the post-law period. SRCs and NSRCs are likely to have different patterns of health care utilization before and after the enactment of Ohio’s concussion law. Our results demonstrate that Ohio’s youth concussion law had a quantifiable impact on health care utilization.

Details

Title
Sports and non-sports-related concussions among Medicaid-insured children: health care utilization before and after Ohio’s concussion law
Author
Newton, Alison 1 ; Yang, Jingzhen 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Shi Junxin 2 ; Sullivan, Lindsay 3 ; Huang, Lihong 3 ; Singichetti Bhavna 3 ; Zhu Motao 1 ; Felix, Ashley S 4 

1  Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Center for Injury Research and Policy, Columbus, USA (GRID:grid.240344.5) (ISNI:0000 0004 0392 3476); Ohio State University, College of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Columbus, USA (GRID:grid.261331.4) (ISNI:0000 0001 2285 7943) 
2  Biostatistics Resource at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, USA (GRID:grid.240344.5) (ISNI:0000 0004 0392 3476) 
3  Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Center for Injury Research and Policy, Columbus, USA (GRID:grid.240344.5) (ISNI:0000 0004 0392 3476) 
4  Ohio State University, College of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Columbus, USA (GRID:grid.261331.4) (ISNI:0000 0001 2285 7943) 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
Dec 2020
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
e-ISSN
21971714
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-020-00283-w
ProQuest document ID
2471816280
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.