Nationwide Injury Trends Due to Motorized Golf Carts Among the Pediatric Population: An Observational Study of the NEISS Database from 2010-2019

Background: Over the past decade, motorized golf carts have increased in their availability for recreational use and usage at a variety of events. Current regulations allow children, adolescents, and young adults to operate and ride these vehicles with minimal oversight, paving the way for an increasing amount of injuries especially in the pediatric population. Because of this troubling trend, it is necessary to expand on previous reports exploring golf cart injuries from previous time periods and critically examine current injury patterns. This study aims to analyze injury trends due to golf cart injuries over the past 10 years among the pediatric population and further characterize the nature of these injuries

Methods: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database was queried for all golf cart injuries occurring in the pediatric population (≤21 yo) from the years of 2010-2019. Inclusion criteria was data within the time frame of the study, individuals ages 0-21, and injury diagnosis codes 50, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 63, 64, and 66. Exclusion criteria was any data outside the time frame of the study, individuals >21 years old, and non-applicable injury codes. The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation for continuous variables, percentages, and frequencies for categorical variables. Appropriate NEISS sample weights were applied for estimating national injury rates.

Results: A total of 63,503 golf cart related injuries occurred during 2010-2019. During this time frame, the number of injuries per year has steadily increased from 5,490 in 2010 to 6,500+ in the past 3 years (2017, 2018, 2019). The mean age of the population was 11.75 yrs (95% CI = 11.15 - 12.34), with the majority of injuries occurring in children (0-12 yrs old) (50.8%). Injuries in males occurred more frequently than females (51.92%, 95% CI = 48.45% - 55.37%). The two most frequent injuries were superficial injuries (42.68%, 95% CI = 38.77% - 46.68%) and fractures/dislocations (20.11%, 95% CI = 16.21% - 24.66%), with the majority of the injuries having occurred in the head and neck region (42.45%, 95% CI = 39.05% - 45.91%). Out of all the injuries that occurred, the majority were non-severe (92%, 95% CI = 89.2% - 94.13%). The location where the greatest frequency of injuries occurred was at school or a sports event (60.71%, 95% CI = 52.41% - 68.44%). Finally, it was found that the vast majority of all injuries were treated and released by hospitals and medical care facilities (91.11%, 95% CI = 88.40% - 93.24%).

Conclusion: As the incidence of golf cart related injuries continues to rise and their accessibility increases proportionately, improved safety guidelines and regulations should be considered in hopes of preventing these common injuries, especially in an at-risk pediatric population.