OBJECTIVE: The goal was to describe the epidemiological features of physical education (PE)-related injuries treated in US emergency departments.
METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted with data for children and adolescents (5–18 years of age) from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance Study of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, from 1997 through 2007. Sample weights provided by the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System were used to calculate national estimates of PE-related injuries. Trend significance of the number of PE-related injuries over time was analyzed by using linear regression analysis.
RESULTS: An estimated 405305 children and adolescents were treated in emergency departments for PE-related injuries. The annual number of cases increased 150% during the study period (P = .001). Nearly 70% of PE-related injuries occurred during 6 activities, that is, running, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics. Boys' injuries were more likely to involve the head, to be diagnosed as a laceration or fracture, to be attributable to contact with a person or structure, and to occur during group activities. Girls' injuries were more likely to involve the lower extremities, to be strains and sprains, to be acute noncontact injuries, and to occur during individual activities.
CONCLUSION: More research is needed to identify the cause of the increase in PE-related injuries, to examine the gender difference in PE-related injuries, and to determine appropriate injury prevention solutions and policies.
Comments
Let's consider many options.
Although adolescents are more fat, does not necessarily mean that it is the cause of increased injury. I do agree that the decrease in play may be a compelling reason, but there is no way to associate injuries in this study to body composition.
Let's take into consideration that children are not playing and developing their neuromuscular system as they should. PE is an excellent time to do this in a safe environment.
I believe another thing to consider is the size of classes and the fact that supervision is limited, at best. The quality of teachers is not something that I feel should go unquestioned, however the safey of children may not always be the top priority. One teacher cannot supervise 50 students and eliminate many of these injuries.
We must also consider the facilities that are being used and if this may have something to do with injuries. There is unlikely a change in facilities during this study, but this can explain away many of the injuries.
Conflict of Interest:
None declared
Misinterpretation of Outcomes
Our kids are fat! Maybe that's why they're getting hurt. They're overweight and don't exercise enough outside of school. This should have been controlled for in the study. This plays into a negative and destructive "blame the schools" mentality. SRR
Conflict of Interest:
None declared