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Feature-specific terrain park-injury rates and risk factors in snowboarders: a case–control study
  1. Kelly Russell1,2,3,
  2. Willem H Meeuwisse2,4,
  3. Alberto Nettel-Aguirre1,2,
  4. Carolyn A Emery2,4,
  5. Jillian Wishart1,
  6. Nicole T R Romanow1,2,
  7. Brian H Rowe5,6,
  8. Claude Goulet7,
  9. Brent E Hagel1,2
  1. 1Department of Paediatrics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
  2. 2Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
  3. 3Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
  4. 4Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, Roger Jackson Centre for Health and Wellness Research, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
  5. 5Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
  6. 6School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
  7. 7Department of Physical Education, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Kelly Russell, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Manitoba Institute for Child Health, 656-715 McDermot Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3E 3P4; krussell{at}mich.ca

Abstract

Background Snowboarding is a popular albeit risky sport and terrain park (TP) injuries are more severe than regular slope injuries. TPs contain man-made features that facilitate aerial manoeuvres. The objectives of this study were to determine overall and feature-specific injury rates and the potential risk factors for TP injuries.

Methods Case–control study with exposure estimation, conducted in an Alberta TP during two ski seasons. Cases were snowboarders injured in the TP who presented to ski patrol and/or local emergency departments. Controls were uninjured snowboarders in the same TP. κ Statistics were used to measure the reliability of reported risk factor information. Injury rates were calculated and adjusted logistic regression was used to calculate the feature-specific odds of injury.

Results Overall, 333 cases and 1261 controls were enrolled. Reliability of risk factor information was κ>0.60 for 21/24 variables. The overall injury rate was 0.75/1000 runs. Rates were highest for jumps and half-pipe (both 2.56/1000 runs) and lowest for rails (0.43/1000 runs) and quarter-pipes (0.24/1000 runs). Compared with rails, there were increased odds of injury for half-pipe (OR 9.63; 95% CI 4.80 to 19.32), jumps (OR 4.29; 95% CI 2.72 to 6.76), mushroom (OR 2.30; 95% CI 1.20 to 4.41) and kickers (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.27 to 3.12).

Conclusions Higher feature-specific injury rates and increased odds of injury were associated with features that promote aerial manoeuvres or a large drop to the ground. Further research is required to determine ways to increase snowboarder safety in the TP.

  • Epidemiology
  • Injury Prevention

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2012-091912

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