Snowboarding Injuries in Australia: Investigating Risk Factors in Wrist Fractures to Enhance Injury Prevention Strategies

Abstract

Abstract:Objective: To investigate risk factors associated with wrist fractures in snowboarders to inform future snowsport safety strategies.Design: A prospective case-control study using a non-probability convenience sample was conducted with data collected via a respondent completed questionnaire. Those presenting with injuries other than wrist fractures acted as the control.Participants: Snowboarders with a snowboard-related injury who presented to one of 10 medical centres and physiotherapy clinics in resort medical centres and gateway communities across the Australian snowsport season in 2007. Results:The 611 respondents reported 802 injuries (61.3% were males and 51.5% were aged 16-25 years). Protective equipment was worn by 57.0% of respondents. The main reason for not wearing a wrist guard was that they did not see the need, of these 12.9% experienced a wrist fracture. Most injuries occurred on-piste, in a terrain park or in a lesson. The main mechanism of injury was falling over. The major risk factors for wrist fractures were age < 16 years (OR 3.97, CI 2.54 to 6.22), being on holidays in the alpine area (OR 2.77, CI 1.47 to 5.21) and a first day snowboard participant (OR 2.02, CI 1.15 to 3.64). A direct logistic regression indicated that three variables had a statistically significant contribution to the model (age <16 years, being on holidays in the region and not wearing a wrist guard). Conclusions:The key risk factors in this Australian study reflect other international studies, providing a clear market segment for targeted snowsport safety messages for those under 16 years, visitors to the alpine regions and those not wearing wrist guards.

Recreational Snow-Sports Injury Risk Factors and Countermeasures: A Meta-Analysis Review and Haddon Matrix Evaluation

“…A wide range of risk factors have been investigated in a number of studies including modifiable factors such as helmet use [32,10,30,[33][34][35][36], wrist guard use [37][38][39]6, 40], ability [41,42], alcohol use [43,44] and terrain condition [45][46][47][48]. Non-modifiable factors such as age [49][50][51], sex [52][53][54][55] and weather [56,57,29] have also been examined.…”

White Paper: functionality and efficacy of wrist protectors in snowboarding—towards a harmonized international standard

“…Yet even with the observed effectiveness of wrist protectors and the ability to purchase or rent wrist protectors, the rate of wrist injuries has remained fairly constant at 19-28 % of all snowboard related injuries [54]. One reason for the constant wrist injury prevalence may simply be that the use of wrist protectors remains relatively low, with worldwide estimates ranging from approximately 11-42 % of interviewed snowboarders both on-and offpiste [12,35,39,40,69,[73][74][75][76][77][78]. Importantly, the rate of wrist protector use was much lower, between 1 and 18 %, for wrist injured snowboarders [26,72,76,[79][80][81].…”

“…One reason for the constant wrist injury prevalence may simply be that the use of wrist protectors remains relatively low, with worldwide estimates ranging from approximately 11-42 % of interviewed snowboarders both on-and offpiste [12,35,39,40,69,[73][74][75][76][77][78]. Importantly, the rate of wrist protector use was much lower, between 1 and 18 %, for wrist injured snowboarders [26,72,76,[79][80][81]. Engel and Langran reported that paediatric snowboarders who sustained wrist injuries while wearing wrist protection had a higher self-reported ability than injured riders not wearing wrist protectors [81].…”

“…Engel and Langran reported that paediatric snowboarders who sustained wrist injuries while wearing wrist protection had a higher self-reported ability than injured riders not wearing wrist protectors [81]. Beginner and younger riders are the least likely to wear wrist protection while snowboarding [35,76,77,80].…”

“…In one study, all snowboarders who sustained distal radius fractures used wrist protection containing a short splint [74]. Dickson et al found that the likelihood of sustaining a wrist fracture when wearing a short palm-side only protection was greater than any other wrist guard design [37, 57,76]. The odds of a wrist injury when wearing a short, palm-side only design was 4.17 higher (95 % CI: 0.89-19.52) when compared with short or long, dorsal or both sides design [76].…”