It is summer, a time when many people who were sedentary all winter get outside and start being active again.\u00a0 While being active is great, many people become injured when they start playing new sports or ones they haven\u2019t done in years.\u00a0 So, how safe are the various activities done by the typical weekend warrior?<\/p>\n
I am personally interested in this question because this summer I am bicycling across the U.S.\u00a0 When people hear a middle aged man is pedaling alone 3,000 miles the first question they ask is, \u201cIs it safe?\u201d\u00a0 Given the near misses and one crash on loose gravel I have had so far this trip my inclination is to say no.\u00a0 Nevertheless, personal experience is no substitute for looking at actual data.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission<\/a><\/span> is the government agency that gathers data and makes rules to help reduce the risk of injury or death when using equipment like a bike, golf club or even treadmill.\u00a0 They estimate that total damage, death and injuries from using faulty consumer products costs the U.S. more than $1 trillion a year<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n They track the specific types of injury from every kind of sport and make this available online via the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System<\/a><\/span> (NEISS).\u00a0 This database not only tracks sports injuries, but also injuries from contact with any kind of consumer product from ATVs to workshop tools.<\/p>\n The NEISS system has tracked injuries since 1979.\u00a0 It counts only injuries that resulted in a person ending up in a hospital emergency room.\u00a0 Injuries that people take care of at home or leave untreated are not counted.<\/p>\n The NEISS releases data in aggregate form and also as individual case records<\/a><\/span> without people\u2019s name or geographic location.\u00a0 For example, one of the first injuries reported in 2017 is a 21 year old white man who was boxing with a friend while drunk and went to the ER because he was punched in the face.<\/p>\n The overall NEISS data show that bicycling is indeed dangerous.\u00a0 About 455,000 cyclists<\/a><\/span> ended up in the emergency room in 2017.\u00a0 However, other sports and exercise activities have even more injuries.\u00a0 There were half a million ER visits because of injuries received while playing basketball.\u00a0 Going to the gym is the most dangerous with 526,000 people injured using exercise equipment.\u00a0 Maybe all the bike riders, basketball players and gym rats should try something safer like horseback riding since that group only had 49,000 ER visits.<\/p>\n The problem with using aggregate NEISS data to compare the dangers of various sports and activities is that participation rates vary.\u00a0 One reason few people are injured horseback riding is that relatively few people do this compared to the large number shooting hoops in their driveway or at the neighborhood playground.<\/p>\n This problem can be overcome by using the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 American Time Use Survey (ATUS)<\/a><\/span>, which provides information on how much of each day people spend exercising<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 The data show only about one in five Americans got exercise in a typical day<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 The ATUS list does not match perfectly with the injury data, but there is a large overlap.<\/p>\n ATUS shows the most common types of exercise are walking and using exercise equipment and weights, which I consider going to the gym.\u00a0 Using the gym figures as a baseline it is possible to compute a participation adjustment figure for each sport.\u00a0 For example, the data show 2.5 times more people go to the gym on a typical day than play basketball.\u00a0 This means basketball injury figures need to be increased by 2.5 times to make a fair comparison of being hurt in the gym versus being hurt on the court.<\/p>\n What do the adjusted figures show?\u00a0 The most dangerous activity is no longer going to the gym.\u00a0 Instead, it is playing football.\u00a0 The second most dangerous activity is playing hockey.\u00a0 Unfortunately, for me bicycling stays in third place on the list.<\/p>\n Table: Dangerousness of Various Activities Based on ER Visits<\/p>\n The adjustment is not perfect because we should also adjust for the amount of time spent in the activity since the longer people spend doing an activity the more time they have to be injured.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the message is clear for those of you thinking about taking your bike out for a spin on a lovely summer day.\u00a0 Be careful out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is summer, a time when many people who were sedentary all winter get outside and start being active again.\u00a0 While being active is great, many people become injured when they start playing new sports or ones they haven\u2019t done in years.\u00a0 So, how safe are the various activities done by the typical weekend warrior? … Continue reading How safe are summer activities like bicycling?<\/span> \n\n
\n Activity<\/strong><\/td>\n Original Rank <\/strong><\/td>\n Adjusted Rank<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Football<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Hockey<\/td>\n 11<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Cycling<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Soccer<\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Basketball<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Baseball, softball<\/td>\n 7<\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Equestrian sports<\/td>\n 10<\/td>\n 7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Rollerblading<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Volleyball<\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Gym<\/td>\n 1<\/td>\n 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Swimming, surfing<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n 11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Racquet sports<\/td>\n 13<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Running<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n 13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n