November 2000 • Volume 6 Number 11
'Extreme' or otherwise: Wear protective gear for sports
Should the new "extreme" sports make a difference in doctor's orders?
Not really.
Whether you're talking about an extreme sport such as skysurfing -- or a perennially popular one such as bicycling -- if your patients participate in them, you should encourage use of protective equipment.
Take bicycling, for example. The stats tell the story: The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute (http://www.bhsi.org) reports that bike crashes kill 900 every year and send about 567,000 to emergency rooms with injuries. The use of a bicycle helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent, the institute says -- but the Consumer Product Safety Commission (http://www.cpsc.gov) reports that 50 percent of bike riders do not regularly wear one.
And adults, not just kids, need protection. According to CPSC, sports-related injuries among adults ages 35 to 54 increased about 33 percent from 1991 to 1998.
A policy adopted by the AAFP Congress of Delegates Sept. 18-20 in Dallas calls for family physicians to counsel patients about protective equipment, including:
- flotation devices for swimming,
- eye protectors for paintball, and
- helmets, goggles, wrist protectors, and knee and elbow pads for horseback riding, biking, skate boarding, in-line skating, skiing and snowmobiling.
The policy, actually an update of an existing policy, "wasn't necessarily in response to the fact that there are these new, potentially dangerous sports out there," says Robert Pallay, M.D., of Belle Mead, N.J., a member of the Commission on Public Health, which developed the policy. But the updated policy is timely in light of today's take-it-to-the-edge, extreme activities, he says.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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