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Potter effect

A study found that Potter books kept kids busy, hence away from injuries

Is Harry Potter making the world safer for children? British researchers report that on the weekends when the last two books of the series came out, young people made far fewer visits to an Oxford emergency room.

The study led by Dr. Stephen Gwilym of John Radcliffe Hospital, appears in the final 2005 issue of the journal BMJ.

The researchers looked at how many children between seven and 15 came to the ER with musculo-skeletal injuries on the 2003 weekend after The Order of the Phoenix was published, and on the 2005 weekend of The Half-Blood Prince. They compared these numbers with admissions in a three-year period. On the Harry Potter weekends, they found, the admission rates went down by almost half - even though each was a pleasant summer weekend when business in the ER would ordinarily be good.

NEW YORK TIMES

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