Traumatic Brain Injury in Infants Increased During Recession

Cleveland, OHA new study conducted by researchers at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, indicates that traumatic brain injury in infants doubled during the economic recession.

HealthDay News reports that the number of babies hospitalized due to non-accidental head trauma, previously known as shaken baby syndrome, increased dramatically as the economy struggled.

"The reasons for why this is happening are beyond the scope of our study, but it may be that more parents are stressed to the breaking point because of economic problems like unemployment and foreclosures," lead author Mary I. Huang, a fourth-year medical student at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, said in the study.

The new findings support a 2010 study conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh which found nearly twice as many cases of abusive head trauma in infants per month during the recession compared to the period before the financial crisis.

The latest study, which examined infants up to two years old from December 2001 through June 2010, found that 639 infants had been admitted to the hospital for traumatic injuries, according to the news source.