Heavy kids at slightly higher risk for lower-limb sports injuries

By Kathryn Doyle

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exercise can help overweight kids slim down, but a new study suggests they might be at risk for leg, ankle and foot injuries in the process.

That could be because their legs are supporting extra weight, researchers said.

The finding makes sense intuitively, but there had not been conclusive, thorough studies done among children before, lead author Eva Jespersen said. Jespersen is a physiotherapist and doctoral student at the Center for Research in Childhood Health at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.

She and her colleagues studied 632 kids, ages seven to 12, for two and a half years. The kids all went to physical education class for at least an hour and a half each week. Parents reported on children's injuries, which were then confirmed by a doctor.

There were a total of 673 leg, ankle and foot injuries during the study period.

Kids who were determined to be overweight or obese based on both their body fat and BMI were most likely to sustain a lower body injury, according to results published online November 22 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

But the differences compared to normal-weight kids were small.

Children with a healthy BMI had 4.4 injuries for every 1,000 "athletic exposures" (i.e., 1.5 hours of physical education class or one afterschool sports practice), compared to 5.3 injuries for every 1,000 exposures among kids with an overweight or obese BMI.

The injury rates were similar when the researchers separated healthy and heavy kids based on body fat percentage.

"In the bigger picture the need to get all kids more active, and particularly overweight children, is imperative," Malachy McHugh told Reuters Health in an email. McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, was not involved in the Danish study.

"The fact that this data is coming from a country noted for its relatively active and fit population is not insignificant - it is likely stronger effects would be seen in children in countries with lower overall physical activity and higher overall BMI," he said.

Ten percent of kids in the study were overweight based on BMI and only 1% was obese.

The results don't mean that overweight kids should avoid sports, Jespersen said.

"The long term consequences in terms of poor health for habitually sedentary individuals far outweighs the small elevation in risk of injury for overweight children," McHugh said.

Heavier kids and their parents should try to choose activities that promote physical fitness, balance training and motor coordination, which will help protect against injury, Jespersen said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1ccYFc5

Br J Sports Med 2013.

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