Study: Playground Safety Inadequate in Impoverished Neighborhoods

A new study of playgrounds in the Chicago area has some interesting conclusions related to injury prevention. While the researchers rated most of the playgrounds safe for children, they found that many of those located in poorer neighborhoods need improvement. Fortunately, a few simple renovations, particularly with the playground’s surface, can make a big impact on the overall safety. According to Dr. Gary Smith, the director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, “If a playground is done correctly with the appropriate surfacing, when a climbing child overreaches and falls, he or she can just get up and brush themselves off, rather than paying the price of a broken bone or a traumatic brain injury.” A safe surface could be made of either rubber, other commonly used energy-absorbing materials, or loose-fill wood chips.

Encouragingly, the researchers re-evaluated 154 of the unsafe playgrounds 2 years after they informed the Parks Department of their hazards and found that 40% could now receive a safe rating. Improvements to the failing playgrounds was not all that difficult or expensive to achieve -- to get the ball rolling, all that was needed was a demonstration of the problem and the will to fix it. Playgrounds can and should be made safer for the children that use them, especially for those living in impoverished communities who are at the greatest risk.

The findings of this study will be published in the February edition of Pediatrics. To read more now, click here for Serena Gordon’s article “Poorer neighborhoods often have less safe playgrounds” in Healthday.

Also, check out the Child Injury Prevention Alliance’s website for more tips on playground safety.

Notice anything that needs to be renovated in the above picture of the playground at Concordia Park in East Oakland, CA???

The Inspiring Success of the Pediatric Neurocritical Care Program at St. Louis Children's

In 2005, the St. Louis Children’s Hospital implemented a pediatric neurocritical care program (PNCP) to better treat children with traumatic brain injuries. This program formed a team of doctors, nurses, and therapists from the neurosurgery, neurology, trauma surgery, and radiology departments at the hospital. The idea was that the united team of specialists was better equipped to identify and prevent secondary damage that can arise from head injuries, particularly damage due to brain swelling and intracranial pressure.

A recent case study of 123 children treated at the hospital for severe TBIs, either before or after the launch of the PNCP, has proven the effectiveness of such a program. According to the results, before the PNCP, 52% of children treated for TBI either passed away or required stays at long-term care facilities while, after the start of the program, only 33% faced such a fate. As Jose Pineda, MD, director of the PNCP, commented on the study: “We were amazed by the results. We analyzed the data rigorously, and we found that our new program of care resulted in a striking improvement in outcome for children with severe traumatic brain injury. Mortality for these children was dramatically reduced, and we also noted a meaningful improvement in outcome for survivors. We know that children who suffer traumatic brain injuries have long lives ahead and must reintegrate into society and be independent. That’s where we set the bar.” (Pineda is pictured above, all the way right, with fellow supporters of the High School Sports Brain Injury Prevention Act.)

Going forward, Pineda and his dedicated team are hoping to spread the word of their success and implement similar initiatives at other hospitals. 

Click here to read more on MedicalXpress: “Pediatric program for brain injuries saves lives, reduces disabilities” 

Also, check out the homepage of the pediatric neurocritical care program at St. Louis Children’s.

"Safe Storage, Safe Dosing, Safe Kids"

While medications are lifesaving and crucial to maintaining our health, we cannot forget the dangers that they can pose to curious children. According to Safe Kids USA, more than 60,000 kids are treated annually in an ER due to unintentional medication poisoning. That’s an astounding 165 children a day. By staying aware of our medications and ensuring that we follow procedures for safe storage, dosing, and disposal, we can help prevent these accidents from occurring.

For medication safety tips and a comprehensive discussion of this problem, check out Safe Kids’s website and 2012 publication “Safe Storage, Safe Dosing, Safe Kids: A Report to the Nation on Safe Medication.” 

How young is too young to play tackle football?

Should parents let their children play tackle football despite the risks of concussions and their potential long-term consequences? This is a question that NPR’s Tom Goldman investigated in his recent article, Head Injuries Rattle Even Devout Football Parents (click the link to read).

Goldman discovered through his observations of youth football in Texas, where he aptly mentions the sport is often considered a religion, that while parents are increasingly more aware about concussions and the dangers they pose, many are still willing to let their kids gear up. It is currently estimated, according to USA Football, that nearly 3 million children, ages 6 to 14, participate in organized tackle football. As Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon and co-author of Concussions and Our Kids, is referenced saying in this article, “Children are among the most vulnerable to concussion because of weak necks, immature musculature, and brains that are still developing.” Per Dr. Cantu’s recommendation, children under age 14 should not play tackle football.

Wesley Rolan, one of the parents interviewed, said he will let his 8-year-old son play until he suffers a concussion and then “that’s it—no more tackle.” When it's your child's brain at stake, is it even worth letting it get to that point?

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For more about the risks young athletes face, click the link to read about research done recently at Virginia Tech that shows youth football players suffer similar degrees of head impacts that college players do. Also, check out this video version of this article below.

Stone Phillips reporting for PBS Newshour: “ A Hard-Hitting Story: Young Football Players Take Big-League Hits to Head”

Watch Young Football Players Take Big-League Hits to Head on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Is the definition of a "concussion" too narrow? New study says yes...

A recent study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery argues that the current method of diagnosing sport-related concussions and head injuries based on the athletes’ reported symptoms is inadequate. According to the lead researcher, Ann-Christine Duhaime, MD, “The term ‘concussion’ means different things to different people, and it’s not yet clear that the signs and symptoms we now use to make a diagnosis will ultimately prove to be the most important pieces of this complicated puzzle.”

In Emergency Departments, patients that are diagnosed with a concussion usually exhibit “immediate changes in consciousness” due to a “clearly identified head impact.” However, after studying 450 contact-sport athletes with specialized sensors in their helmets, Duhaime and her team determined that of 48 concussions sustained, 17 of them could not be associated with a specific head impact and many of the athletes were unaware of the symptoms until several hours after their games. Clearly, not all concussions follow the same pattern and different athletes have various timings of symptoms and ways of describing them.

It seems that athletes would benefit from a broader categorization of concussions and a more encompassing method of diagnosing them. As Duhaime concludes, “A lot of work is needed before we can understand to what extent patients’ reported symptoms—compared to such factors as the actual force imparted to the brain, previous head injuries and genetic background—influence the eventual consequences of repeated head impacts, consequences that may vary from patient to patient.”

Follow the below link to read more about this on MedicalXpress.com:

“Criteria used to diagnose sports head injuries found to be inconsistent”

Follow this link for the study as published in the Journal of Neurosurgery:

“Spectrum of acute clinical characteristics of diagnosed concussions in college athletes wearing instrumented helmets.”