Younger children who play video games are more likely than older kids to report pain in their hands and fingers, according to research sparked by the curiosity of an 11-year-old Missouri gamer.

"One day, I was squeezing orange juice when my thumb started hurting, and I asked my dad if I was going to get arthritis or tendinitis and which causes more pain: i Touch or Game Boy," Deniz Ince, 11, explained in a media release.

"He replied, 'Honestly, I don't know.' After this I wanted to find out if my friends were experiencing similar pain," said Ince, whose father is a rheumatologist.

Ince and a research team lead by Dr. Yusuf Yazici administered questionnaires to 171 children ages seven to 12 at an elementary school in St. Louis, Mo., concerning their use of consoles including Xbox, Play Station, Wii and iPhones.

The study found younger children were more likely to report increased pain, with seven-year-olds reporting the most. Additionally, researchers noted that playing a Wii exclusively resulted in more self-reported pain.

Based on the research, minimum ages for playing games could be a consideration in the future, said Dr. Yazici, an assistant professor in the department of rheumatology at New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases.

"Our study suggests that a significant portion of children playing with game consoles experience hand and wrist pain, which may not be recognized," Yazici said in a news release.

About 49 per cent of participants reported using game consoles for up to one hour a day. Just over 40 per cent reported using them up to three hours a day, and 6.4 per cent more than three hours a day.

Nearly 12 percent of children overall reported finger pain and nearly 10 percent reported wrist pain that limited the amount of time they were able to play video games.

The study was presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology's Annual Scientific Meeting in Philadelphia.