Boomers Still Play Hard--and Get Hurt

Older but apparently not much wiser, baby boomers who stay active with exercise and sports are racking up injuries, federal statistics show.

From 1991 to 1998, there was a 33% increase in sports-related injuries that sent adults ages 35 to 54 to hospital emergency rooms, which was the latest year reported in Consumer Product Safety Commission data.

More than 365,000 injuries from 16 popular sports were treated in emergency rooms in 1998, the commission said. The estimate rises to more than 1 million when the agency includes cases of medically treated injuries in these sports that were not seen in the emergency room.

Commission Chairman Ann Brown doubts things are getting safer. “We can predict that over 1 million baby boomers will be injured playing sports this year,” she said.

The commission, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine have launched a public education campaign, including brochures and a Web site (https://www.boomer-itis.org).

Treating sports injuries suffered by a mega-size generation that represents about 30% of the population leads to a huge medical bill--more than $18.7 billion in 1998, the commission said.

However, the increase in injuries does not necessarily mean boomers are exercising more dangerously. The rise is due primarily to the growing number of people between 35 and 54, commission data said. In 1998, there were 14 million more people in the age range than there were in 1991.

But doctors wish the boomers would wise up, by using protective equipment more, and giving their aging bodies more time to recover.

The commission (https://www.cpsc.gov) gives bicycle helmets as an example. Proportionately more young people than boomers wear helmets, the commission said--69% of under-18-year-olds, compared with 43% of boomers. Apparently as a result, boomers died of head injuries from biking at almost twice the rate of the younger group.

The largest increase in injuries occurred in running and general exercise, the commission said. In 1991, there were fewer than 10,000 emergency room cases among boomers, but by 1998, the number had more than tripled, it said.

Doctors say boomers must learn more caution, which can reduce the risk of overuse injuries while gaining the known benefits of exercise, which range from weight control to healthier hearts. Boomers have to give their bodies time to recover by, for instance, not crowding all their exercise into the weekend, said Dr. Robert A. Stanton, an orthopedic surgeon affiliated with Yale Medical School.

Even some hard-charging boomers realize this.

“I pay a little more attention to stretching, but there’s a lot of denial of the aging and the arthritis,” said Mark A. Liszt, 52, a recreational basketball player and chief executive of Metropolitan Provisions, a commercial food service in Los Angeles.

When he plays basketball with people his age or older, it’s a slower game, with more encouragement and appreciation of how the other players are doing, Liszt said.

“If a guy makes a great move, you let them go,” he said. “You pat them on the butt and say, ‘Great shot!’ ”

But when he plays against younger people, including 30-year-olds, it’s a different ball game, Liszt said: “You try to play to their level and reflexes.”