Sports-related brain injuries among children on the rise

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)released areport Tuesday highlighting a big increase in emergency room visits for sport-related concussions over the past five years.

The report uses combined data from Ontario and Alberta and shows a 78 per cent increase in sport-related brain injuries among kids nine and under and a 45 per cent increase among those 10 to 17 years old between 2010/11 and 2014/15.

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Hockey continues to account for more brain injuries than any other sporting activity in the CIHI data, although the proportion of hockey-related injuries has been on the decline since 2011/12.

Click on this interactive graph to explore theproportionofbrain-injury ER visits, by activity type, over the five years:

Ash Kolstad doesn't need a report to understand the effects of a concussion.

When has was 12,he was hit during the first game of his peewee season and immediately started feeling dizzy and developed a headache.

He never played hockey again.

"I was seeing a sport medicine doctor, a family doctor, a physiotheraprist, a pyschologist, a psychiatrist, a neurologist and an osteopath," said Kolstad, who's now 19.

"I have a headache even today from that,ever since that hit."

'Diagnosing more concussions'

Dr. Raj Bardwaj is a family doctor in Calgary and said he's not surprised by the report's findings.

Calgary Eyeopener6:35Dr. Raj Bhardwaj on concussions

Visits to the emergency room for sport-related head injuries are on the rise in Alberta, especially for young kids. Dr. Raj Bhardwaj explains some of the reasons why.

"I think we're all diagnosing more concussions, partly because we're seeing more people come in and bring their kids in," he said.

"We need to do something about hockey and how we're letting young kids and teenagers play hockey."

Kolstad saideliminating bodychecking at the peewee level was a good start.

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