Are Different Aged Youth Skiers and Snowboarders Experiencing Different Injury Patterns?

BACKGROUND: Skiing and snowboarding have grown significantly in the past decades with millions of participants worldwide. With popularity increasing, specifically amongst youth athletes, so has the number of injuries and fatalities associated with these sports. In this study, we investigate age as a potential determinant for injury patterns for the growing population of youth skiers and snowboarders. HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to investigate the factors associated with different anatomical injury locations among youth skiers and snowboarders. We hypothesized that youth skiers would exhibit predominately lower body injuries, while snowboarders would predominately exhibit upper body injuries. We also expected higher rates of head injuries for the younger snowsports participants given their larger head to body ratios and decreased cervical muscular strength. METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted from data acquired from the Winter Park Resort during the 2012/13–2016/17 ski seasons. The population includes youth (3-17 years old) participants injured at Winter Park Resort while skiing or snowboarding. Patients were sorted by sport and then into age bins 0-6, 7-14, and 15-17 years of age. The study population was described for gender breakdown, run difficulties, equipment usage, skill level, injury location, mechanism, anatomical location, and diagnosis. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between age, sport, and other predictors of injury with different anatomical locations. RESULTS: The study population is described in Table 1. Skiers were more likely than snowboarders to sustain a head injury (odds ratio=1.6, 95% CI=1.2, 2.2), while snowboarders were more likely to sustain upper extremity injuries (odds ratio=5.9, 95% CI=4.6, 7.6). Skiers age 0-6 suffered more head/neck/face injuries (24.2% compared to 14.46 and 14.86% respectively in age bins 7-14 and 15-17). Skiers age 0-6 suffered more fractures (48.2% compared to 28.4% and 23.8% for ages 7-14 and 15-17, where strains/sprains were leading diagnoses). CONCLUSION: Age was associated with injury patterns in youth skiers, as we observed more fractures, head/neck/face injuries and collision-related trauma in skiers age 0-6. Like previous studies, skiing was associated with lower extremity injuries and snowboarding was associated with upper extremity injuries. Taken together, these data support age as a determinant of injury patterns among youth skiers and snowboarders.