Weight Increases Recovery Time From Injuries in Kids



Seems like this is injury week on these pages.

After blogging about injury patterns in obese US high-school athletes on Monday, today’s article is some Canadian data just published by Warsh and colleagues from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, looking at whether overweight and obese kids take longer to recover from injury.

The data source was the 2002 Canadian Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey, which included 7266 youth in grades 6 through 10 sampled from all Canadian provinces and territories. Of these, 2831 students reported an injury event and were included in the analysis.

Youth who were obese and suffered a combined injury (broken bone and strain/sprain) took significantly longer to recover compared to normal weight youth but the recovery time for uncomplicated injuries (fractures or strains alone) was not significantly higher.

Clinicians providing an injury recovery prognosis may need to take into account BMI status and allow for extra recovery time for heavier patients in this age range.

AMS
Heidelberg, Germany

Warsh J, Janssen I, & Pickett W (2011). Do overweight and obese youth take longer to recover from injury? International journal of injury control and safety promotion, 1-7 PMID: 21424972