Introduction
One of my favourite sights on the slopes is a group of children being introduced to, and falling in love with, skiing and snowboarding. My own children are too small at the moment, but I can't wait for the day when they both don skis or boards for the first time. Encouraging kids to both exercise and appreciate the beauty of the mountain environment they are in are both very important to the long term survival of snow sports. I remember my first formative years on the slopes - the feeling of anticipation as you head up the lift at the start of the day and the intense sense of achievement each time you get down a slope unscathed (and ahead of your pals of course). The one thing I don't remember from my childhood on the slopes is ever feeling scared or daunted. Snowploughing out of control down a black run or somehow managing to pick my way through a mogul field were both great fun, never dangerous. As a child I lacked that awareness of danger and self-preservation that I now (sadly!) have. I see the things I got up to myself as a child every day I am on the slopes - children skiing way too fast for their level of ability, trying to knock over other children in their ski class, swerving from side to side on the lift tows and generally misbehaving. But in their eyes, boy they are having a great time!
So, what are the facts about children on the slopes? How many of them are there? What injuries do they sustain? How and why do they injure themselves and what can we do about it? This page is just beginning to take shape. I have a lot more information to put onto this page in time, but I receive so many emails about injuries to children that I have decided to start simple and build up - so keep checking back. I hope the information you are looking for is either on here now or will be very soon!
Epidemiology of children on the slopes
The first thing to clarify here is the age group I am referring to. There is (unfortunately) some variation between individual studies, but unless stated otherwise in the text, I am talking about individuals under the age of 17 years. OK, so now we've got that sorted, how many of them are there on the slopes? Here is the breakdown by age group of snow sports participants currently on the slopes in Scotland. These stats are taken from our "control" data - i.e. uninjured individuals. We'll look at how this compares with the injured group further down the page.
| Age group |
% of total population |
| <17 yrs | 21.0 |
| 17-24 yrs | 33.0 |
| 25-40 yrs | 31.0 |
| >40 yrs | 15.0 |
| TOTAL | 100.0 |
Why are children unique?!
Just some of the physical differences between children and adults that may be of importance on the
- Children have a proportionately larger head and body surface area (BSA) than adults do - predisposing to heat loss
- Children have thinner skin than adults. Their epidermis is thinner and under-keratinized, compared with adults - predisposes to sun (radiation) damage
- Children are more prone to dehydration than adults.
Incidence of injuries amongst children
It's an unfortunate fact that every study that has compared the injury rate amongst children to that of adults on the slopes has concluded that children are at higher risk of injury - usually by about a factor of 2. We have come to the same conclusion based on our own ongoing study in Scotland. The table below shows the that the proportion of children in the injured population compared to controls. You can see that children make up nearly 35% of the injured population compared to only 21% of the total population, indicating an increased risk of injury in this age group. This is reflected in the figures for IPTSD and MDBI (Click here for an explanation of both of these terms) as also shown in the table.
Children |
Adults |
Total |
|
% of injured population |
34.7 |
65.3 |
100.0 |
% of control population |
21.0 |
79.0 |
100.0 |
Injuries per 1000 skier days (IPTSD) |
5.28 |
2.64 |
3.2 |
Mean Days Between Injury (MDBI) |
189 |
379 |
310 |
Common injuries amongst children
The tables below list the region and type of injury amongst children by snow sport.
Use of protective gear by children
The rate of helmet use in the general children's population on the slope is over 30%, a smaller percentage of children who were injured were wearing a helmet. Logistic regression (a rather fancy but very powerful statistical analysis) reveals that children not wearing a helmet have a 66% increased risk of (any) injury compared to those children who do. Many countries of the world and ski areas have put a lot of time and effort into encouraging children to wear helmets. Some offer free helmet hire, whilst others offer free skiing to those wearing a helmet. In France during the 2007/08 season, almost 90% of children under 11 years of age were wearing a helmet. The NSAA has also been proactive in this area with its Lids on Kids campaign, supported by the National Ski Patrol (amongst others). Click here for the NSAA Lids for Kids website.
Sadly, wrist guard use amongst children in Scotland remains woefully low. No injured children were wearing wrist guards as were less than 3% of the uninjured group. This may be a reflection of difficulties getting hold of suitably sized wrist guards, something we have put a lot of effort into addressing. Unfortunately, many children use hired equipment and its not until we convince the hire stores to include wrist guards as part of a standard hire package that we'll make much of an inroad into this. I keep trying!
Other risk factors for injury amongst children.
Our logistic regression analysis has identified the following as independent risk factors for snow sports injury amongst children in Scotland:
- Low ability level (those on their very first day's experience being at highest risk.....as seen in adults!)
- Inexperience in the current season (less than 5 days experience in the current season)
- Use of rental shop equipment
- History of a previous snow sports injury
- Taking lessons
The last factor might seem a little weird - surely taking lessons should protect you against injury? In fact, it has been known for some time that instruction is only useful in protecting against the risk of injury if it is coupled with experience. The danger is that after a few lessons, children might think that they know it all and attempt slopes that are beyond their level of experience and skill. So take care out there when you've had instruction, build up your experience levels gradually and you'll soon be hitting the more challenging slopes with some style, rather than the ski patrol room with zero style!
