Skateboarding Injuries in Vienna: Location, Frequency, and Severity
Received 25 November 2009; accepted 13 April 2010.
Objective
To describe injury patterns of skateboard-associated injuries (SAIs) and to assess the frequency and severity of SAIs depending on an athlete's skateboarding experience.
Design
Cross-sectional observation.
Setting
Skating areas.
Participants
A total of 100 Viennese skateboarders.
Interventions
No intervention.
Main Outcome Measures
The participants filled in a questionnaire that was used to assess selected sociodemographic data; duration and frequency of skateboarding; “stance”; and localization, rate, as well as the severity of SAIs during the past 24 months. Skating behavior and sociodemographic data were compared with frequency and severity of SAIs.
Results
Response rate of questionnaires was 75% (n = 75) of the participants. Duration of skateboarding was 8 ± 5 years, and training time was 18 ± 11 hours/week. A total of 97% (73) of the respondents reported at least one injury: in 52% (39) of the respondents the most serious injury was mild to moderate (laceration, contusion, strain/sprain, and bruise), whereas in 45% (34) it was severe (ligament rupture, fracture). A total of 33% (13) of participants experiencing only mild-to-moderate injuries consulted a physician compared with 94% (32) with at least one serious injury. The most severely affected regions were lower leg/ankle/foot in 32% (24) of all respondents who experienced at least one severe injury and forearm/wrist/hand in 16% (12) who experienced at least one severe injury. Only 13% (10) used protective equipment. Multivariate logistic regression for the occurrence of at least one severe injury with all socioeconomic and sport-relevant data investigated revealed significant positive correlations with weekly training time (P = .037) and years of experience (P = .021). However, after correcting for multiple testing (Bonferroni adjustment for 8 tests), no significances remained.
Conclusion
More experienced skateboarders seem to have a greater risk of incurring severe SAIs, but sociodemographic factors seem to have no influence on injury risk in this population. Only a minority of skateboarders used protective equipment.
aDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical University of Vienna, Austria⁎
bSection of Medical Statistics, Core Unit for Medical Statistics and Informatics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria†
cDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria‡
dSection of Medical Statistics, Core Unit for Medical Statistics and Informatics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria§
eDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria∥
fDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical University of Vienna, Austria, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria¶
ABSTRACT