Snowboarding accounts for largest percentage of injuries

Research has shown that more people are hurt snowboarding than any other outdoor activity, accounting for a quarter of emergency room visits, according to the first national study to estimate recreational injuries in the United States.

Trailing snowboarding are sledding and hiking, researchers at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention report in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.
The most common problems were broken bones and sprains, accounting for half of all cases. About 7 percent of ER visits were for concussions or other brain injuries.

“We want people to participate in outdoor recreational activities. But we want people to recognize that there’s cause for concern and people can and do get injured,” study co-author Arlene Greenspan said Tuesday.
She said injuries can be avoided through planning: Make sure your fitness level and skills match the activity and use proper equipment such as helmets. Greenspan said the study is the first to look at injuries from all activities, instead of individual sports or geographic areas.

The researchers looked at data on non-fatal injuries from outdoor activities treated at 63 hospitals in 2004 and 2005. They calculated that almost 213,000 people annually were treated for such injuries nationwide. About half of those injured are young, between ages 10 and 24 and half of the injuries are caused by falls.

Males are injured at twice the rate of females, but the research didn’t look at the reasons.
“It could be that males are more risky or it could be that males just participate more than females, or a combination of both,” said Greenspan.

We try to emphasise safety in all our blogging – here is another reason that reinforces are argument that you must use the right equipment, take proper instruction, do not attempt feats of heroism for which you are not qualified and do not go out in bad weather conditions……..please!