Parents always worry about their kids – especially boys – getting sick or being injured, but what are the real reasons that parents bring their boys into the emergency room? Every year, the CDC publishes an annual report called the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, one of its National Health Statistics Reports. The data in this report include information on emergency room (ER) visits based on age and gender. The following is a list of the top 10 reasons that boys aged 14 and under visited the ER in the year 2006, the year for which the most recent data are available. After each reason, the number of visits appears in parentheses followed by the percentage that number represents out of all ER visits by this age group.

Boys under 15 make up more than half of the ER visits for this age group: overall, males aged 14 and under made 11,548,000 visits to the ER in 2006, representing 52.8% of all ER visits for this age group. For the 15 and older age group, ER visits by females vastly outnumber those by men.

The top 10 reasons for ER visits among boys under 15 for 2006 are:

1. Fever (1,659,000 visits, 7.6%)
2. Cough (828,000 visits, 3.8%)
3. Vomiting (611,000 visits, 2.8%)
4. Unspecified injuries to the head, neck, and face (368,000 visits, 1.7%)
5. Facial area symptoms (352,000 visits, 1.6%)
6. Ear ache or ear infection (347,000 visits, 1.6%)
8. Stomach and abdominal pain or cramps (277,000 visits, 1.35)
9. Throat symptoms (239,000 visits, 1.1%)
10. Difficulty breathing (dyspnea; 203,000 visits, 0.9%)

For more information on children’ health, join the Healia Health Community for Child Health.

Related blog posts:

  - Top 10 Reasons for ER Visits Among Males 15 and Older

  - Top 10 Reasons for ER Visits Among Females 15 and Older

_{Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 2008–1250, August 2008. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2006 Emergency Department Summary, National Health Statistics Report No. 7}

_{Photo: Matthew Oliphant, Flickr, Creative Commons}

Every year, the CDC publishes an annual report called the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, one of its National Health Statistics Reports. The data in this report include information on emergency room (ER) visits based on age and gender. The following is a list of the top 10 reasons patients visited the emergency room for adult females 15 years and older for 2006, the year for which the most recent data are available. After each reason, the number of visits appears in parentheses followed by the percentage that number represents out of all ER visits by people of this age group.

Previously, we posted the top 10 reasons for ER visits for males aged 15 and older. As you will see, the top reasons that older teen and adult females end up in the ER over are somewhat different than the reasons for males. Females also make more ER visits: overall, females aged 15 and older made 54,633,000 visits to the ER in 2006, representing 56.1 % of all ER visits for this age group.

The top 10 reasons for ER visits among males aged 15 and older for 2006 are:

1. Stomach and abdominal pain or cramp (5,062,000 visits, 5.2%)
2. Chest pain and related symptoms (3,212,000 visits, 3.3%)
3. Headache or other head pain (1,923,000 visits, 2.0%)
4. Back symptoms (1,692,000 visits, 1.7%)
5. Shortness of breath (1,583,000 visits, 1.6%)
6. Pain, non-specific or poorly localized (1,303,000 visits, 1.3%)
7. Throat symptoms (1,148,000 visits, 1.2%)
8. Nausea (1,065,000 visits, 1.1%)
9. Cough (966,000 visits, 1.0%)
10. Dizziness or vertigo (952,000 visits, 1.0%)

For more information on women’s health, join the Healia Health Community for Women’s Health.

Related blog post: Top 10 Reasons for ER Visits Among Males 15 and Older

_{Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 2008–1250, August 2008. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2006 Emergency Department Summary, National Health Statistics Report No. 7}

_{Photo: Mark Coggins, Flickr, Creative Commons}

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks emergency room (ER), hospital and doctor’s office visits among the American people each year. The CDC publishes this data in an annual report called the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, one of the National Health Statistics Reports. The data in this report include information on emergency room visits based on age and gender. The following is a list of the top 10 reasons patients visited the emergency room for adult males 15 years and older for 2006, the year for which the most recent data are available. After each reason, the number of visits appears in parentheses followed by the percentage that number represents out of all ER visits by this age group Overall, males aged 15 and older made 42,682,000 ER visits in 2006, representing 43.9% of all ER visits for this age group.

The top 10 reasons for ER visits among males aged 15 and older for 2006 are:

1. Chest pain and related symptoms (3,023,000 visits, 3.1%)
2. Stomach and abdominal pain or cramps (2,358,000 visits, 2.4%)
3. Back symptoms (1,517,000 visits, 1.6%)
4. Shortness of breath (1,256,000 visits, 1.3%)
5. Lacerations and cuts on the hand or arm (1,169,000 visits, 1.2%)
6. Pain, non-specific or poorly localized (1,077,000 visits, 1.1%)
7. Headache or other head pain (1,063,000 visits, 1.1%)
8. Leg symptoms (778,000 visits, 0.8%)
9. Dizziness or vertigo (677,000 vistis, 0.7%)
10. Motor vehicle accident, unspecified injuries (645,000 visits, 0.7%)

For more information on male health, join the Healia Health Community for Men’s Health.

_{Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 2008–1250, August 2008. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2006 Emergency Department Summary, National Health Statistics Report No. 7}

_{Photo: Stephen Witherden, Filckr, Creative Commons}

A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week finds that car and other transportation-related accidents are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. About 8,000 child and teen deaths each year in the U.S. involve a motor vehicle occupant, pedestrian, or cyclist, with the highest fatality rates being among occupants of motor vehicles.

To prepare the report, the CDC examined data collected between 2000 and 2006 on emergency room visits and fatalities in children and teens from birth to age nineteen. According to the report, an estimated 9.2 million children visit emergency departments each year for unintentional injuries. Falls caused the most non-fatal injuries (about 2.8 million each year) and were associated with over half of the nonfatal injuries involving children less than one year. Drowning and poisoning were also leading causes of non-fatal injuries among children less than four years old

The report also notes that between 2000 and 2005, unintentional injuries resulted in 73,052 deaths among children and teens, with transportation-related deaths leading the way. Such deaths were highest among children 15 to 19 years of age. Overall, males were almost twice as likely to die from unintentional injuries as females.

The release of the CDC’s report coincided with the World Health Organization′s (WHO) and the United Nations Children′s Fund′s (UNICEF) launch of the 2008 World Report on Child Injury Prevention. The global report found that car crashes, drowning, and other accidents kill 830,000 children worldwide each year. Road crashes are the leading cause of accidental death worldwide, killing 260,000 children each year and injuring 10 million, with drowning, burns, falls, and accidental poisoning rounding out the top five.

Around 95 percent of the worldwide accidental deaths occurred in the developing world, mostly in Africa, and in richer nations deaths from accidents disproportionately affect the poor.

For information about the preventing child injuries and death, see the CDC’s “Protect the Ones You Love” initiative at www.cdc.gov/safechild. The Healia Health Community on Child Health is a great place to discuss the measures you take to keep your kids safe and get ideas from other parents.

_{Sources: UPI, CDC}

_{Photo: Old Man Lee, Flickr, Creative Commons}