Computer-Related Injuries Are On The Rise

By Margarita Nahapetyan

According to the most recent statistics, injuries involving computers are on the rise in the United States, and children under the age of 5 years are at the most risk, particularly at home.

Accidents, such as tripping or falling over the printer cord, lacerations from the sharp corners of a CPU, the straining of muscles and joints, or bruised toes from dropping laptops on feet, happen more often than people might think and can be serious enough to send someone to the emergency room.

Researchers who carried out a study - the first to tally acute computer-caused injuries - gathered emergency room data from 100 hospitals all across the United States. They found that there was a 732 per cent increase in what they called "acute computer-related injuries" during the 13-year study period, from 1994 to 2006. The number is more than double when compared to the 309 per cent increase in household computer ownership over the same period of time.

The study revealed that the majority of computer-related injuries - 93 per cent - occurred at home. Regardless of age, the most frequently diagnosed injury turned out to be laceration, making up 39 per cent of all cases. For adult individuals, the primary cause of injury was getting trapped in a part of a computer or being hit by it, with 37 per cent of cases. Falling computer equipment accounted for 21 per cent of cases, the second major cause of injury, and among adults, hands, feet, arms and legs were the most frequently wounded parts of the body, making up 57 per cent of all injuries.

When the experts analyzed people with the ages between 1 month and 89 years, they discovered that kids under 5 years suffered more than 13 per cent of all injuries. 53 per cent of those under the age of 5 and 41 per cent of those with the ages between 5 and 9 years were hurt while playing near or climbing on computer equipment. The study also showed that among this age group, 76 per cent of all diagnosed incidents included head injuries, which was 5 times the number for adult individuals. Children aged five to nine fared somewhat better, with 62 per cent of accidents resulting in head injuries.

"I found the numbers to be really astounding," said a principal author of the study, Lara McKenzie, assistant professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital's Center for Injury Research and Policy. "We never see increases like that, and we look at consumer products all the time," she said.

According to the most recent statistics available from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of U.S. households with a computer increased from 15 per cent in 1989 to 62 per cent in 2003. Nearly 30 per cent of those had at least two computers. The annual rate of computer-related injuries peaked by 2003, when about 10,000 people were injured by their PCs. The number, however, has since dropped off, probably because lighter, LCD screens have become more prevalent.

The investigators from the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and the Ohio State University College of Medicine said that more studies on the matter are needed as computers become "more intertwined" in everyday lives.

The study is published in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.