Doctors see big jump in kids' trampoline injuries


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May 15, 2005. 04:17 PM

Doctors see big jump in kids' trampoline injuries

FROM CANADIAN PRESS

Kids may jump for joy at the sight of a trampoline, but a huge upsurge in injuries in the past decade has doctors and safety experts wishing that parents would bounce the equipment right out of their back yards.

While total national figures aren't tabulated, a study of 15 Canadian hospital emergency rooms saw trampoline injuries among children leap from about 150 in 1990 to roughly 550 in 2002.

"That's just a representative sample, what we like to say is the tip of the iceberg of the kinds of increases that we're seeing," said Allyson Hewitt, executive director of Safe Kids Canada.

About 75 per cent of injuries occur on home trampolines, including large backyard models that can propel someone up to nine metres in the air. Fractures ? to wrists, arms, ankles, legs and even the neck, skull and spine ? are the most common type of injury.

"You would think that most injuries would occur when children would fall off the trampolines, but actually a significant number of injuries are happening to children while they're on the trampoline," Hewitt saiIn fact, falling off the equipment represented less than one-third of all injuries, concluded a 2002 study by the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP).

About 18 per cent took place when there were two or more kids on the equipment at the same time; six per cent while attempting stunts like flips; and 33 per cent from falling or landing on the trampoline bed itself, said Steven McFaull, a research analyst for Canada's Public Health Agency, which oversees the CHIRPP databasOf great concern is the growing severity of trampoline injuries: from 1990 to 2001, there was a 56 per cent increase in the number of cases requiring admission to hospital.

Close to half of those were among kids aged 10 to 14, said McFaull.

With the warm-weather season upon us ? 84 per cent of injuries occur between April and September ? safety experts want consumers to think twice about buying a trampoline. Yet sales "have gone through the roof," said Hewitt.

While Canadian figures aren't avathe International Trampoline Industry Association said sales to U.S. consumers jumped 395 per cent between 1989 and 2002.002.

And as popularity has risen, so too have injuries: nearly 75,000 American children were seen by emergency room physicians each year in 2001 and 2002, compared to an annual average of about 42,000 from 1990 to 1995, a study shows. More than 90 per cent of the mishaps happened on home equipment.

Injuries serious enough to require hospital admission also rose dramatically in children 18 and under ? to about 2,120 in 2001-2002 from 1,400 a year in the early '90s, said lead author Dr. James Linakis, a pediatric emergency physician at Rhode Island H"I've heard from several parents that it's great exercise for my kids," said Linakis, who presented his findings to the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting Sunday in Washington. "And I think there's a lack of perception as to the kind of injuries that can occur.occur.

"There are other ways for children to get exercise, there are other ways for children to find enjoyment from being in the outdoors," he said in a recent interview from Providence, R.I. ``And clearly some of these other ways are less of a risk to children than what we see trampolines to bThe American Association of Pediatrics recommends that trampolines should not be used at home, inside or out; nor should they be part of school phys ed classes or placed in outdoor playgrounds ? a position supported by Safe Kids Canada. Canada.

Any trampoline use should be in a setting that provides expert training and safety supervision, said Hewitt. "And we are strongly recommending that children under six not use a trampoline, even in a supervised setting. They just don't have the physical strength or co-ordination to handle it."

Still, memories of performances by Canadian silver-medallist Karen Cockburn and other 2004 Olympic trampoline artists are bound to embolden some kids to go after the same high-flying experience.

"Those people are so highly trained," said Hewitt. "These are the best athletes in the world, and to assume we can go in our backyard and replicate anything that they're doing is just not acceptable."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...id=968332188492

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