Traumatic brain injury is the second most common injury suffered by people walking their dog, according to a new study. The most common is a finger fracture, followed by traumatic brain injury then a sprained or strained shoulder.
And researchers found it was women and people over 65 who bore the brunt of the most serious injuries. The study comes from emergency room statistics from 2001 to 2020 and only relates to people who had their dog on a lead at the time.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US say the findings are particularly relevant given the surge in dog ownership in the pandemic. Ridge Maxson, the study’s first author and a third-year medical student, said: "Although dog walking is a common daily activity for many adults, few studies have characterised its injury burden.
"We saw a need for more comprehensive information about these kinds of incidents. Dog ownership also increased significantly in recent years during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a 2021–2022 national pet ownership survey, nearly 53 per cent of US households own at least one dog."
The study, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, found that women, and all adults age 65 and older, were more likely to sustain serious injuries, such as fractures and traumatic brain injuries, than people in other demographic groups. The team from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health used the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database for their study.
Around 422,659 adults sought treatment in US emergency rooms for injuries resulting from leash-dependent dog walking from 2001 to 2020. Nearly half of all patients were adults age 40 to 64, and 75 per cent of patients were women.
Most injuries occurred due to falling after being pulled by, tangled in or tripped by the lead connected to a dog they were walking.
The researchers defined a traumatic brain injury as concussions and nonconcussive internal head injuries, which can include brain contusion (a bruise of the brain tissue), epidural hematoma (bleeding in above the brain’s outer membrane) or subdural hematoma (bleeding beneath the brain’s outer membrane).
Traumatic brain injury and hip fracture were the two most common injuries among adults age 65 and older. Women with injuries related to dog walking were 50 per cent more likely than men to sustain a fracture.
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Older dog walkers were more than three times as likely to experience a fall, more than twice as likely to have a fracture and 60 per cent more likely to sustain a traumatic brain injury than younger dog walkers. Across the 20-year study period, the annual number of injuries more than quadrupled.
The researchers think this may be due to rising dog ownership rates and promotion of dog walking to improve fitness. Dr Edward McFarland the study’s senior author and director of the Division of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine added: "“Clinicians should be aware of these risks and convey them to patients, especially women and older adults.
“We encourage clinicians to screen for pet ownership, assess fracture and fall risk, and discuss safe dog walking practices at regular health maintenance visits for these vulnerable groups. Despite our findings, we also strongly encourage people to leash their dogs wherever it is legally required.”
