Snowboarding and the ER

This won’t exactly entice adults to try snowboarding, but honesty requires a mention of a new report on injuries.

One AP story has this first paragraph: “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.” (Stephanie Nano, CDC: Snowboarding tops lists for outdoor injuries, June 10, 2008).

The Centers for Disease Control announced the report in a press release. It looked at 213,000 people who visited the ER in 2004 and 2005 for “outdoor recreational activities.” There were few surprises in the demographics: Half of the injuries occurred among those between the ages of 10 and 24, and two out of three were men. Together, that’s the population that is most likely to engage in sports, and engage at more dangerous levels.

The announcement says that of all the injuries, fractures and sprains were the most common injuries, but that’s for all sports.

Snowboarding represents 25 percent of all those ER visits.

That’s what got the headline. It’s consistent with the image of the sport. But look deeper into the report and you’ll find something interesting. On Table 6, snowboarding represents 25.5 percent of all cases.

Horrors! What a dangerous activity. I must go back to skiing!

But then look further. “Other” sports are responsible for 39.7 percent of the injuries. What’s “other?” Look at the footnote: “Includes … snow skiing (61.0%).” That’s well over half of the “other” injuries, which means that 24.2 percent of injuries come from skiing. Not that much different from snowboarding.

Granted, none of this helps if you’re suffering from a sprained wrist. But it does help keep things in perspective.

The findings were published in the journal Wilderness & Emergency Medicine, which is published by the Wildness Medical Society. [Citation: Flores AH, Haileyesus T, Greenspan AI. National estimates of outdoor recreational injuries treated in emergency departments, United States, 2004-2005. Wilderness Environ Medicine. 2008;19:91-98. (Link to 8-page PDF); HTML version]

Also check out the New York Times blog The Lede, which points out some methodological limits to the study. There’s also Well, a health blog at the NYT, which reports on an earlier study.