Your health: Trampoline park injuries jump 12-fold
Trampoline park injuries jump 12-fold
Trampoline park injuries have soared as the indoor jumping trend has spread, The Associated Press reports.
A study shows annual U.S. emergency room visits jumped 12-fold for park-related injuries over five years. Injuries included broken legs, neck sprains and concussions, but 90 percent of the injured children and adults were treated and released.
The study by researchers at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford was published recently in Pediatrics.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against children using trampolines at home or parks and says injury rates at trampoline parks should be monitored.
In 2010, there were 581 ER visits for injuries from trampoline parks versus 6,932 in 2014. During those years, the number of parks multiplied from 25 to 350 nationwide.
Most trampoline injuries occur at home, not in indoor parks, and the researchers cite data showing that ER visits for home injuries were mostly stable during the study years, totaling about 60,000 each year.
Two-thirds of the trampoline park injuries were in kids ages 6 to 17, while about 1 in 5 were in ages 18 and up. Only 14 percent were younger than age 6, while that age group accounted for 30 percent of those injured on home trampolines. Injuries were most common in boys and whites.
The International Association of Trampoline Parks says the rate of injury is very low — less than one per 10,000 jumpers at a typical park.
Teen athletes at low risk from painkillers
While research has shown that some teen athletes in high-injury sports are at higher risk of prescription painkiller misuse, a new study in the August 2016 Pediatrics found the majority of adolescents regularly engaged in sports and exercise are less likely to misuse these types of drugs.
The report looked at data from more than 191,000 eighth- and 10th-grade students, the American Academy of Pediatrics reports.
Students who reported participating in sport and exercise almost every day — and even those who said they participate in these activities once a week at most — had lower odds of indicating both past year opioid misuse and past-year heroin use when compared to respondents who reported no involvement in these activities, according to the study.
More research is needed on the specific risks of opioid use among young athletes in high-injury sports, the researchers said. Overall, though, this study suggests that regular participation in sport and exercise may serve as a protective factor with respect to painkiller misuse and subsequent heroin use.