Youth Sports : Epidemic Injury Levels & Low Practice Exercise Levels

Two recent cautionary news items about youth sports

8,000 kids are treated in ERs daily, trainers’ association says
From the December 7th Health Day news article

TUESDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) — Youth sports injuries have become rampant in the United States, with

emergency departments treating more than 8,000 children a day for sports-related injuries, safety experts reported Tuesday.

As more children play school sports and in organized leagues, they are suffering an ever-increasing number of injuries, the experts from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association said in presenting their grim picture at a conference in Washington D.C.

Statistics released by the organization also revealed that:

• Forty-eight youths died as the result of sports injuries in the past year.
• About 63,000 high school athletes suffer brain injuries every year.
• High school athletes suffer 2 million injuries, 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The numbers led the association to issue a national report card on youth sport safety, giving the nation a C- for 2010…….

Kids’ Team Sports Often Lacking in Exercise
Soccer, softball and baseball players found to be inactive for about 30 minutes per practice session

From the December 7 Health Day news item by Robert Preidt

MONDAY, Dec. 6 (HealthDay News) — Playing team sports does not guarantee that a child will get the U.S. government-recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day, a new study reveals.

Using accelerometers, a type of sensor that measures physical activity, researchers studied activity levels of 200 children aged 7 to 14 while they took part in practices with their soccer, baseball or softball teams.

Overall, only 24 percent of the children met the 60-minute physical activity recommendation during practice. Less than 10 percent of participants aged 11 to 14 and less than 2 percent of female softball players reached the guideline, said Desiree Leek, of San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego, and colleagues….

…The findings were released online Dec. 6 in advance of publication in the April 2011 print issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Flu Viruses Gaining Resistance, Study Confirms: MedlinePlus

 

 

From the December 7, 2010 news item by Robert Preidt

TUESDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) — Certain influenza virus strains are developing increasing drug resistance and greater ability to spread, a new study warns.

American and Canadian researchers confirmed that resistance to the two approved classes of antiviral drugs can occur in several ways and said this dual resistance has been on the rise over the past three years.

The team analyzed 28 seasonal H1N1 influenza viruses that were present in five countries from 2008 to 2010 and were resistant to both M2 blockers (adamantanes) and neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs), including oseltamivir and zanamivir.

The researchers found that additional antiviral resistance can rapidly develop in a previously single-resistant influenza virus through mutation, drug response, or gene exchange with another virus…

…

The findings are published online Dec. 7 in advance of print publication Jan. 1 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

 

Contaminated Butter Points to Need for Better Surveillance, Study Says: MedlinePlus

From the December 7th Health Day news item by Robert Preidt

TUESDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) — U.S. researchers who recently found high levels of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants in butter say it is the worst documented case of food contamination with PBDE in the country.

It’s also the first time that this type of food contamination is believed to be the result of PBDEs in a food’s packaging.

 

The researchers found that one in 10 samples of butter bought at five Dallas grocery stores had PBDE levels more than 135 times higher than the average of the other nine samples. Levels of deca-BDE — a PBDE compound widely used in electronics, textiles, cable insulation, and car and aircraft components — were more than 900 times higher in the contaminated samples than in the other nine samples.

Studies in rodents have linked deca-BDE with thyroid hormone changes and neurobehavioral changes.

As the researchers continued their investigation, they found that PBDE levels in the butter’s paper wrapper were more than 16 times higher than levels found in the butter. It’s not clear whether the paper was contaminated before or after it reached the butter packaging plant, and the actual source of contamination is not known.

The study is published online Dec. 7 and in an upcoming print issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The findings highlight the need for a U.S. regulatory program that tests food for persistent organic pollutants such as PBDEs, said lead author Arnold Schecter of the University of Texas School of Public Health and colleagues in a news release from the journal.

 

When the state paid, people stopped smoking

From the December 7, 2010 Reuters health news item by Maggie Fox

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When Massachusetts started paying for stop-smoking treatments, people not only kicked the habit but also had fewer heart attacks, researchers reported on Tuesday in the first study to show a clear payoff from investing in smoking prevention efforts.

Smoking dropped by 10 percent among clients of Medicaid, the state health insurance plan for the poor, and nearly 40 percent of Medicaid patients who smoked used benefits to get nicotine patches or drugs to help them quit, the researchers said….

…Thomas Land and colleagues at the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program, as well as the Harvard Medical School, looked at hospital records for the study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine at http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000375.