Jerome Enad normally strolls each of his 3 dogs — American Staffordshire terriers Sugar and Mr. Bones, and Froyo, a fighter mix — individually. One eventful day in 2022, nevertheless, he chose to walk all 3 together while his spouse was away.
“Some days you have less energy than others, so I just wanted to get their walks out of the way,” says Enad, 57, of Pensacola, Florida. “That was a bad decision.”
That’s due to the fact that Enad’s dogs have a bane: a next-door neighbor dog whose existence sends them into a tizzy. Enad frequently expects possible conflicts and crosses the street to prevent them. On this specific day, nevertheless, his dogs saw the animal villain initially.
“The three of them with their combined weight were too much. Once they all got excited, it happened so fast,” says Enad, who attempted to hold his ground as his dogs darted for their target. “My heels started skidding, and I landed on my butt and my back. Then they started pulling me across the sidewalk until I was able to brace my foot against something — a tree, maybe, or a gutter. That’s when I wrenched my knee.”
Enad’s experience isn’t uncommon. Dog walking injuries are most typical amongst grownups ages 40–64 and are most severe amongst grownups 65 and older, according to a recent research study from Johns Hopkins University.
Enad, who occurs to be a retired orthopedic cosmetic surgeon, had actually sprained the median security ligament in his ideal knee. Although he was hopping for weeks, he recuperated with rest.
It might have been much even worse. And for numerous older grownups — almost 4 in 10 of whom have a dog — it frequently is.
Beware of falls and fractures
From 2001 to 2020, 422,659 grownups looked for treatment in U.S. emergency clinic for injuries sustained while walking leashed dogs, according to the April research study from scientists at Johns Hopkins University. Many more hurt dog walkers most likely looked for treatment with medical care physicians and professionals, according to Ridge Maxson, among the research study’s authors and a fourth-year medical trainee at Johns Hopkins University.
Older grownups’ most typical injuries from dog walking are terrible brain injuries and hip fractures, the research study notes. Compared with younger dog walkers, older individuals are 3 times most likely to experience a fall while walking a leashed dog, more than two times as most likely to sustain a fracture and 60 percent most likely to sustain a distressing brain injury.
“For older adults, the most common injuries we found are two of the most debilitating and life-changing injuries that older adults can experience,” says Maxson, who blames age-related decreases in balance, bone density, gait, muscle strength and vision. Hip fractures in older grownups can restrict movement and total self-reliance, he says, including that 15 percent to 36 percent of older grownups who experience a hip fracture pass away within a year of their injury.
“As for traumatic brain injury, it’s been linked in older adults to enduring cognitive and psychosocial impairments, and a history of traumatic brain injury in addition to normal age-related brain changes may actually accelerate cognitive decline,” he says.
Tips for more secure dog walking
The takeaway isn’t that older grownups shouldn’t own dogs, Maxson firmly insists. Rather, it’s that they need to take proactive actions to lessen the threat of injury if they do. For example:
