Study Says Harry Potter Books Prevents Injuries to Children

Posted on December 23, 2005

reports that doctors at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford treated far fewer child injuries on the weekends when the Harry Potter books were released. Apparently, all the kids were indoor reading instead of falling out of trees. Usually 67 kids need treatment for injuries on a weekend, whereas only an average of 36 children needed treatment on the reading weekends.

The researchers looked at the weekends of Saturday, 21 June, 2003 and Saturday, 16 July this year - the launch dates of the two most recent Harry Potter books, The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince. The authors of the study suggested that encouraging more book reading might be a useful way to combat childhood accidents. "It may.. be hypothesised that there is a place for a committee of safety conscious, talented writers who could produce high quality books for the purpose of injury prevention," they wrote in the British Medical Journal.

However they acknowledged there could be a downside to a strategy that seeks to turn active children into bookworms. Potential problems could include "an unpredictable increase in childhood obesity, rickets and loss of cardiovascular fitness".

No matter what good news comes out, there's always some one who has to ruin everyone's fun.

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