An Analysis of US Emergency Department Visits From Falls From Skiing, Snowboarding, Skateboarding, Roller-Skating, and Using Nonmotorized Scooters

What is it about?

Sports injuries are a common cause of Emergency Department (ED) visits in the United States, particularly among children. It is important to put the risk of serious injury from these activities into perspective. For example, we want to know if one sport is associated with more severe injuries than another (i.e., is snowboarding riskier than roller-skating?) . We analyzed a nationally representative sample of 214,000 Emergency Department visits due to injuries from one of 5 sports. Skiing injuries had the highest percentage of hospitalizations (3.30% in pediatric patients and 6.65% in adults 18 to 44). Skateboard and snowboard injuries were more likely to require hospitalization than roller skating injuries in pediatric patients. However, skateboard and snowboard injuries were less severe than roller-skating injuries in adults.

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Why is it important?

From a public health perspective, safety measures for skiing (eg, better training, better safety equipment) seems warranted across all age groups. For skateboarding and snowboarding, a more targeted safety campaign that focuses on participants under age 18 is needed.