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 Researchers examined data from 2011-2015 on 20,519 emergency room
visits for facial fractures associated with recreational activities
among adults 55 and older. During that time, the annual incidence of
facial fractures rose 45 percent, from 3,174 in 2011 to 4,612 in
2015.
“The rate of facial fractures from recreational activities in the 55
and older population rose quite significantly over a relatively
short period of time,” said study co-author Dr. Peter Svider of
Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan.
“Part of it likely has to do with our aging population, in which
people are living longer and living healthier lives longer,” Svider
said by email.
As the U.S. population ages, doctors have encouraged aerobic
activity and muscle-strengthening exercises to help maintain
mobility, flexibility and cognitive ability.
People treated for facial fractures in the current study were 67
years old, on average. Roughly 20 percent were 75 or older,
researchers report in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.
The most common causes of facial fractures were cycling, team sports
like baseball and softball, and activities such as hiking, fishing
or camping and gardening. Walking and jogging also caused a small
proportion of injuries.
Most facial fractures were to the nose. The next most common site
was the eye socket.
Men and women injured themselves differently. About 36 percent of
men sustained facial fractures from cycling, compared with 15
percent of women, for example. Gardening, however, accounted for 16
percent of facial fractures among women and just 6 percent among
men.
The study only captured injuries treated in emergency departments,
and not cases when people went to urgent care clinics or other
places, the authors note.
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The results are also difficult to interpret because researchers
didn’t account for how much time people spent on various
recreational activities or how often they did these things, both of
which are typically included in calculating injury rates in sports,
said Jean-Michel Brismee, a physical therapy researcher at Texas
Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock.
Even so, the findings highlight a trade-off in encouraging older
adults to be more active, Brismee, who wasn’t involved in the study,
said by email.
“We advise people to participate in recreational activities,”
Brismee said. “If you do, you will decrease the risk of
cardiovascular disease and heart attack and improve your overall
health profile, but you will increase the risk of injuries including
facial injuries from falls.”
Common sense can help make injuries less likely.
“Wear your helmet when you ride the bicycle, wear laced shoes when
you walk the dog or garden, but for sure keep bicycling, walking the
dog and gardening if you feel you are up to it,” Brismee said.
“People should not just stop one activity and do nothing, otherwise
their health will decline faster!”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2tJXF3x JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, online
June 15, 2017.
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