Body mass index and the odds of acute injury in children.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to determine (1) the association between body mass index (BMI) and acute injury and (2) the association between BMI and bone fracture in children.
Methods: Children 5 to 17 years old were recruited in the emergency department at the British Columbia Children's Hospital. Cases included children treated for an injury, and control subjects were children without an injury in the past 12 months. Participants were administered a questionnaire to derive average activity level and demographic data. Weight and height measurements were taken to calculate BMI. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to estimate the odds of injury occurrence by BMI category and the impact of covariates.
Results: Logistical regression, after adjusting for age, sex, activity level, and income level, did not reveal an increased association between BMI and acute injury in overweight odds ratio (OR) = 0.90 (0.48-1.70) and obese OR = 1.18 (0.60-2.33) children. Secondary outcome analyses failed to show an increased association between BMI and fracture in overweight OR = 0.44 (0.12, 1.66) and obese OR = 1.02 (0.31, 3.32) children.
Conclusions: This study did not find increasing BMI to be associated with increased acute injury or bone fracture in children.