Video Games Can Play Havoc With Kids' Joints

The younger the child, the more likely the pain, says research led by an 11-year-old

By Jennifer Thomas
HealthDay Reporter

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SATURDAY, Oct. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Kids who play video games for more than an hour a day increase their chances of having wrist and finger pain, a new study has found.

The lead author of the study knows this all too well. Deniz Ince, who's 11 years old, got the idea to study joint pain among his classmates at Rossman Elementary in St. Louis, Mo., after noticing that his fingers ached while squeezing oranges. Deniz, an avid Wii player, wondered if his video game habit was the culprit.

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With the help of his rheumatologist dad and researchers from New York University, the fifth-grader handed out questionnaires to 171 of his schoolmates who were 7 to 12 years old.

About 80 percent of them reported playing with game consoles (Xbox, PlayStation, Wii and the like) or hand-held devices (including iTouch, iPhone and PlayStation Portable). Roughly half of them said they used them less than an hour a day, about a third said they played one to two hours daily, 7 percent reported playing two to three hours a day and 6 percent reported playing more than three hours daily.

Each additional hour of use increased the likelihood of experiencing pain by 50 percent, according to the study. Younger children were also more likely to have wrist pain than older children.

"The younger the kids, the more significant the pain," said the study's senior author, Dr. Yasuf Yazici, an assistant professor of medicine at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City. "The 7-year-old playing for two hours had more pain than the 10-year-old playing for two hours," he said.

The study was to be presented Oct. 19 at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting in Philadelphia.

The researchers said they weren't sure why younger children were more prone to joint pain, though it could be because their muscles and tendons are still developing. Similar motions might put more pressure on a younger child's hand and wrist, compared with an older child's, Yazici said.

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