The trampoline, patented in 1936, was originally designed for circus acts. Over time, it became a training and fitness tool, a gymnastics apparatus, and a new way of having fun. While trampolines were found only in schools or recreational clubs in the 60s and 70s, the industry has soared as parents began to buy trampolines for use in their backyards.
Trampolining has always had its dangers to the point that in 1971, the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States pulled the trampoline from its competition. Most recently, in 2006, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued warnings and recommendations that would restrict trampoline use and removing them from homes, outdoor playgrounds, and schools.
Despite the more than 83,000 injuries seen in emergency rooms across the United States in 1996, the majority of which occurred at home, trampoline ownership has increased from an average of 3 trampolines per family in the US in 1995 to 1.7 trampolines per family now. This increase in trampoline availability in the home environment has added to the number of children who are not abiding by the manufacturers’ recommendations of only one jumper at a time and safety devices (netting, recessed canvas) are only used a bit more than half the time.
In this study, the authors reviewed the accident records from trampoline injuries during a 3-month period in one emergency room. They found 101 children, average age 8.5 years, ranging from 1.4 to 16 years, out of 6636 patients in that 3-month period. This represents about 1.5 percent of the patients. The majority of the patients had fractures (35 arms, 24 legs, 1 sternum) and the remaining had soft tissue injuries (36 patients) or head injuries (5 patients). Broken down, the injuries were:
– arms: 38
– legs: 36
– head: 5, 1 with loss of consciousness
– trunk: 4
– face: 3
Twenty of the patients were admitted to the hospital; 12 of whom had to have surgery, 58 went to a fracture clinic, and one to plastic surgery for stitches to the face. Broken into percentages, almost 20 percent of patients with trampoline injuries were admitted to the hospital.
The injuries occurred from:
– falls off the trampoline: 31 patients
– awkward falls on to the canvas: 23
– patients colliding with another person on the trampoline: 13
– falls into the springs around the canvas: 9
– attempting to do stunts: 12
– jumping from somewhere else onto the trampoline: 1
There was protective netting only around 47 trampolines, and only 52 had a responsible adult supervising the play. The researchers found that 80 percent of the children had sustained trampoline injuries earlier, as well. And, “Despite this and the manufacturer’s guidelines, 58 percent of injuries in this study, occurred when more than one person was on the trampoline,” the authors write.
Despite manufacturers’ recommendations, 58 of the patients were jumping on the trampoline with at least 1 other person:
– 6 people jumping on the trampoline: 1 case
– 5 people jumping on the trampoline: 2
– 4 people jumping on the trampoline: 9
– 3 people jumping on the trampoline: 13
– 2 people jumping on the trampoline: 33
When the injury occurred with more than one person on the trampoline, more than half of the patients were the smallest or lightest in weight.
The authors of this study conclude that when more than one child is jumping on a trampoline, it is the lightest child who has the greatest risk of injury as the larger child can rebound on top of the lighter one. In fact, the lighter child has a 14 times higher chance of injury.