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 “I don't think trampoline park injuries are increasing because they
are especially dangerous compared to home trampolines, but rather
because of their growing popularity and the increasing
number/availability of these facilities,” said lead study author Dr.
Kathryn Kasmire, a researcher at Connecticut Children's Medical
Center in Hartford.
From 2010 to 2014, the average annual number of emergency room
visits for trampoline injuries was close to 92,000. The vast
majority happened at home - but injuries at trampoline parks surged
more than 10-fold during the study period. In 2014, injuries at
trampoline parks accounted for almost 7,000 emergency room visits,
the study found.
Nationwide, the number of trampoline parks surged from about 40 in
2011 to 280 in 2014, researchers note in the journal Pediatrics.
An estimated five to six new parks open each month, and there were
probably about 450 nationwide by the end of last year.
To assess how the surge in trampoline parks is influencing injuries,
researchers examined data from a nationwide registry of injuries.
They excluded data from gymnastics or competitive trampoline
injuries, as well as from sports facilities that offer a variety of
recreational sports rather than just wall-to-wall trampolines.
With home injuries, the average age was close to 12, about a year
younger than the typical age of people hurt at trampoline parks, the
study found.
Children ages 6 to 17 accounted for the majority of injuries at home
and at trampoline parks.
Sprains and fractures were the most common trampoline injuries,
regardless of location. But sprains were 61 percent more likely at
trampoline parks.
Dislocated joints were more than twice as likely to occur at
trampoline parks as at home, the study found.
At trampoline parks, fractures were much more common in younger
children than in teens and adults, accounting for almost half of
injuries for kids under 6. Younger children were less likely than
older teens and adults to sustain sprains, however.
One limitation of the study is that researchers lacked complete data
on the location of every injury, which the authors conclude may mean
they underestimated the number of emergency room visits tied to
trampoline parks.
Another shortcoming is the lack of data on how often people used
trampoline parks, which made it impossible to calculate an injury
rate based on the number of hours or episodes of participation, the
authors also note.
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Even so, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against
recreational trampoline use due in large part to the injury risk.
When trampolines are used for fun, kids should have constant adult
supervision and adequate protective padding, and there should be
just one jumper at a time, the AAP recommends. Kids should also
avoid flips and somersaults, the doctors group advises.
“Trampolines were originally developed as a device for use by
acrobats, gymnasts, fighter pilots, etc. – they were never intended
to be used as a backyard toy,” said Dr. Gary Smith, lead author of
the AAP recommendations on trampolines and president of the Child
Injury Prevention Alliance in Columbus, Ohio.
“If a child would like to use a trampoline, it should be done at a
gym with a trained instructor who can safely progress the child
through maneuvers as the child gains skills,” Smith, who wasn’t
involved in the study, added by email.
Even with supervision, trampoline parks might be more dangerous
because kids have a better chance of crashing into each other, noted
Dr. Sean Bandzar of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.
“Trampoline parks may be inherently more dangerous because children
are able to jump from trampoline to trampoline throughout the park
and bump into other children,” Bandzar, who wasn’t involved in the
study, said by email. “Research has suggested that approximately
three-quarters of injuries occurred when multiple people were using
one trampoline at a time.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2acOShk Pediatrics, online August 1, 2016.
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