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Original articles
Concussion in the international ice hockey World Championships and Olympic Winter Games between 2006 and 2015
  1. Markku Tuominen1,
  2. Timo Hänninen2,
  3. Jari Parkkari2,
  4. Michael J Stuart3,
  5. Teemu Luoto4,
  6. Pekka Kannus5,
  7. Mark Aubry6
  1. 1Medisport Ltd, Tampere, Finland
  2. 2Tampere Research Center of Sports Medicine, UKK Institute, Tampere, Finland
  3. 3Department of Orthopedics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
  4. 4Department of Neurosurgery, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
  5. 5Injury and Osteoporosis Research Center, UKK Institute, Tampere, Finland
  6. 6Ottawa Sport Medicine Centre, Ottawa, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Markku Tuominen, Medisport Ltd, Keskisenkatu 5, Tampere 33710, Finland; markku.tuominen{at}medisport.fi

Abstract

Background Concussions in sports are a growing concern. This study describes the incidence, injury characteristics and time trends of concussions in international ice hockey.

Methods All concussions in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships (WC) and Olympic Winter Games were analysed over 9 ice hockey seasons between 2006 and 2015 using a standardised injury reporting system and diagnoses made by the team physicians.

Results A total of 3293 games were played (169 tournaments, 1212 teams, 26 130 players) comprising 142 244 athletic game exposures. The average injury rate (IR) for concussion was 1.1 per 1000 ice hockey player-games for all IIHF WC tournaments. The IR was the highest in the men's WC A-pool tournaments and Olympic Games (IR 1.6). However, the annual IR for concussion in the men's tournaments has been lower than that in the World Junior tournaments since 2012. When a concussion occurred with contact to a flexible board, the IR was 0.2 per 1000 player games. In contrast, the IR was 1.1, if the board and glass were traditional (for the latter, RR 6.44 (95% CI 1.50 to 27.61)). In the men's tournaments, the trend of concussions caused by illegal hits decreased over the study period. After the 4th Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport was published (2013), none of the concussed players in the men's WC returned to play on the day of injury.

Conclusions The annual risk of concussion in the men's WC has decreased during the study period. This was most likely due to a reduction in illegal hits. The risk of concussion was significantly lower if games were played on rinks with flexible boards and glass. Rink modifications, improved education and strict rule enforcement should be considered by policymakers in international ice hockey.

  • Ice hockey
  • Concussion
  • Injury prevention
  • Epidemiology
  • Head

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) 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/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-097119

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors MT, TH, JP, MJS, TL, PK and MA contributed to study conception and design. MT and TH carried out the literature search, coordinated and managed all parts of the study. MT, MJS and MA conducted data collection and performed preliminary data preparations. MT conducted data analyses and all the authors contributed to the interpretation of data. MT, TH and JP wrote the first draft of the paper and all authors provided substantive feedback on the paper and contributed to the final manuscript. All authors have approved the submitted version of the manuscript. MT is the guarantor.

    • Funding This study was financially supported by The International Ice Hockey Federation and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.