Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) were the second most common injury among adults treated in US emergency rooms for injuries related to walking a dog with belt between 2001 and 2020. Over the age of 65, they were more likely to sustain serious injuries, such as fractures and TBIs, than people in other demographic groups. The study was published in Medicine and science in sports and exercise.
“According to a 2021-2022 national pet ownership survey, nearly 53% of American households own at least one dog,” says Ridge Maxson, the study’s first author and a third-year medical student at Johns Hopkins University. “Dog ownership has also increased significantly in recent years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although dog walking is a common daily activity for many adults, few studies have characterized its burden of injury. We saw a need for more comprehensive information on this kinds of incidents.”
The researchers were from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database, which is operated by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, the researchers found that approximately 422,659 adults sought treatment at US emergency rooms. for injuries resulting from leashed dog walking between 2001 and 2020. Nearly half of all patients were adults 40 to 64 years of age, and 75% of patients were women. Most of the injuries occurred due to falls after being pulled on, entangled in, or tripping over a leash attached to a dog they were walking.
The three most common injuries among all adults were, in order, finger fracture, TBI, and shoulder sprain or strain. TBI and hip fracture were the two most common injuries among adults 65 and older. Traumatic brain injuries identified in this study consisted of both concussions and non-concussive internal head injuries, which may include contusion (a bruise on brain tissue), epidural hematoma (bleeding above the outer membrane of the brain) or subdural hematoma (bleeding under the outer membrane of the brain).
In particular, women with dog walking-related injuries were 50% more likely than men to suffer a fracture. Older dog walkers were more than three times as likely to have a fall, more than twice as likely to have a fracture, and 60% more likely to have a traumatic brain injury than younger dog walkers.
Over the 20-year study period, the estimated annual incidence of injuries due to dog walking on a leash more than quadrupled. The researchers posit that this trend may be due to the simultaneous increase in dog ownership rates and the promotion of dog walking to improve fitness.
The team hopes their findings will promote awareness among dog owners and encourage clinicians to talk to their patients about the potential injuries of leash-dependent dog walking.
“Physicians need to be aware of these risks and convey them to patients, especially women and older adults,” says Edward McFarland, MD, the study’s lead author and director of the Division of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine. . “We encourage clinicians to screen for pet ownership, assess risk of fractures and falls, and discuss safe dog-walking practices at regular health maintenance visits for these vulnerable groups. Despite our findings, we also recommend I strongly urge people to leash their dogs where legally required.”
The team also looked at cases of leash-dependent dog walking injuries among children under 18 years of age. Those findings will be published in the near future.
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