ARCHIVED - Injuries associated with... INLINE SKATING

 

CHIRPP

CHIRPP database, summary data for 1998, all ages


LIMITATIONS

This report is based on information from the database of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP). It is important to note that the injuries described do not represent all injuries in Canada, but only those seen at the emergency departments of the 15 hospitals in the CHIRPP network. Since the majority of CHIRPP data comes from the pediatric hospitals, which are in major cities, injuries suffered by the following people are under-represented in the CHIRPP database: older teenagers and adults, who are seen at general hospitals; native people; and people who live in rural areas. Fatal injuries are also under-represented in the CHIRPP database because the emergency department data do not capture people who died before they could be taken to hospital or those who died after being admitted.


SUMMARY (962 records)

Overall, 59.6% of the inline skating injuries were experienced by males and 10-14 year olds sustained the majority of injuries both overall (56.8%) and within the age stratum (2.0%). Almost half (46.1%) of the injuries occurred between 4:00 pm and 7:59 pm. Over one-third (36.1%) of the injuries took place on the weekend. Over half (52.4%) of the incidents happened in transport areas of which 39.3% were paved roads and 22% were sidewalks. Half (50.5%) of the injuries were the result of a loss of control (leading to a fall) with no specific cause. Fractures represented 47.6% of all injuries and of these 68% were of the forearm and wrist (45.2% and 22.8%, respectively). The proportion of forearm and wrist fractures relative to all other injuries for the inline skating group was 41.1% while the same proportion for the overall CHIRPP database was 7.1% for the same period (1998). In the cases where the status of safety equipment was known, helmets were used in 49.5% of the cases and sport padding in 34.8%. At the Emergency Department, 47.9% of the patients were treated with medical follow-up required while 7.8% were admitted to hospital.


SPECIFICATIONS OF THE SEARCH

In February 2000, a search of the CHIRPP database for the year 1998 (111,748 records) was conducted for all ages. Records were selected if:

i) they contained the factor code for inline skating (code 1163) or

ii) if the injury event description contained any of the following strings "IN-LINE SKAT", "IN LINE SKAT", "INLINE SKAT", "ROLLERBLAD", "ROLLER BLAD", "ROLLER HOCK", "PATIN A ROU", "PATIN ALIGN", "PATINS A ROU", "PATINS ALIGN".

Selected records were then scanned and eliminated if the injury was not directly related to inline skating. The total number of records captured was 962.


MISSING (UNKNOWN) VALUES

In the following sections, at the bottom of each table or in the description, the number of missing values is indicated (if necessary). Missing values are those numbers for which the value of the variable in question is unknown (i.e. the information was not provided on the CHIRPP reporting form). In these cases the percentages are calculated on the total after the missing values are removed.


AGE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION OF THE INJURED PATIENTS

Age
(Years)

Frequency

Percent of all injuries

Number
/1,000
1

Percent male

Percent
male
CHIRPP2

2-4

14

1.5

0.7

42.9

57.1

5-9

227

23.6

9.7

51.1

58.2

10-14

546

56.8

20.1

61.4

61.4

15-19

108

11.2

9.8

67.6

63.2

>=20

67

7.0

3.6

64.2

59.9

Total

962

100

8.6

59.6

59.5

1 The number of injuries per 1,000 CHIRPP injuries of all types within the age group indicated. Because CHIRPP collects information from ten children's hospitals and only five general hospitals, there is a high number of young children in the database. Using the number per 1,000 within an age group (instead of overall percent by age group) adjusts for different age group distributions.

2 The percentage of males in the CHIRPP database for all injuries for patients in the given age stratum in 1998.


OVERALL PATTERN OF OCCURRENCE

Year-to-year pattern

Year

Frequency

Number/
1,0001

1994

756

6.1

1995

893

7.4

1996

1,096

9.2

1997

973

8.3

1998

962

8.6

Total

4,680

7.9

1 Number of inline skating injuries per 1,000 CHIRPP injuries of all types for the given year.


Time at which the injury occurred

Time of day

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Midnight to < 8:00 am

12

1.4

8:00 am to < Noon

70

8.3

Noon to < 4:00 pm

193

22.9

4:00 pm to < 8:00 pm

388

46.1

8:00 pm to < Midnight

178

21.2

Total

841

100

# of missing values = 121


Day during which the injury occurred

Over a third (36.1%) of the injuries were sustained on Saturday and Sunday. The remainder were distributed fairly evenly over the other five days of the week.

Season during which the injury occurred

Season

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Spring (March-May)

362

37.6

Summer (June-August)

357

37.1

Fall (September-November)

191

19.9

Winter (December-February)

52

5.4

Total

962

100


CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE INJURY

Where the injury occurred

Location/Area

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Transport areas

paved road
sidewalk
road - unspecified
driveway
parking lot
bicycle path

504

198
111
95
44
28
28

 

52.4

Own home/other home

garden/yard
indoors
balcony/porch/garage
other
unspecified

134

58
26
11
2
37

13.9

Sports and recreation areas

rink
field or track
gym
other
unspecified

79

38
2
1
2
36

8.2

Public park

playground
stairs
unspecified

75

22
1
52

7.8

School

gym
yard
sports areas
playground
stairs
unspecified

43

8
7
5
3
1
19

 

4.5

Other

15

1.6

Unspecified

112

11.6

Total

962

100

Circumstances surrounding the injury1

Circumstances

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Lost control or balance and fell with no specific cause

direction unknown
fell backwards
fell forwards
fell laterally

486

438
29
11
8

50.5

Playing roller hockey (organized and unorganized)

fell
collision with other player
other

75

51
10
14

7.8

Insufficient toe clearance (i.e. tripped while skating, no obstacles)

56

5.8

Skating on a hill or incline/excessive speed

52

5.4

Stunts or difficult manoeuvre (incl. backward skating)

52

5.4

Roadway or floor obstacle (grates, speed bumps, pebbles)

46

4.8

Fell because of surface conditions (rocky, slippery, rough or a change in surface (e.g. pavement to grass))

43

4.5

Moving over stairs, steps or changes in level

23

2.4

Collision with a stationary object (wall, parked car)

22

2.3

Loss of control while cornering or braking

20

2.1

Incidents with motor vehicles

collision
avoiding a collision

16

14
2

1.7

Incidents with other inline skaters (non-roller hockey)

collision
avoiding a collision

12

11
1

1.2

Incident with a pedestrian (incl. animals)

avoiding a collision
collision

10

6
4

1.0

Walking dog

6

0.6

Malfunction of the inline skate (loose wheel, brake)

5

0.5

Novice

4

0.4

Clothing or item caught in the inline skate

3

0.3

Collisions with cyclists

2

0.2

Other circumstances

29

3.0

Total

962

100

1Each patient was assigned to a single category that best describes the circumstances and percentages were based on the 962 persons injured. Category assignment was based on the level of detail available in the description of the injury.



NATURE OF INJURY/BODY PART1

Nature of injury/Body part

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Fracture

forearm
wrist
finger
hand
lower leg
elbow
ankle
upper arm
clavicle
face/head
foot, toe
hip, thigh, knee
spine
thorax

456

206
104
41
20
20
19
12
10
9
6
3
3
2
1

47.6

Superficial

wrist
face/head/neck
elbow
knee
back/thorax
forearm
shoulder, upper arm
hand
finger
lower leg, ankle, foot
pelvis/perineum/external genitalia

187

29
29
21
21
16
14
14
11
11
11
6

19.6

Strain/sprain

wrist
ankle
finger
elbow
knee
forearm
hand
neck
lower leg, foot
back
shoulder, upper arm
hip

151

58
25
14
13
10
9
5
5
4
3
3
2

15.8

 

Open wound

face
lower extremity
head
upper extremity
thorax

74

 

36
14
10
9
1

7.7

Minor head injury

32

3.3

Dislocation

upper extremity
elbow
shoulder
forearm
wrist

13

12
9
1
1
1

1.4

Dental

11

1.1

Nerve and muscle/tendon injury

9

1.0

Concussion

6

0.6

Intracranial

3

0.3

Internal injury

2

0.2

Crushing injury

1

0.1

Other injuries

5

0.5

No injury detected

7

0.7

Total

957

100

# missing values=5

1 up to three injuries and body parts can be entered per record; only the most severe injury is indicated in the above table; 90.2 % of the injured sustained only one injury; 7.1 % experienced two injuries and 2.2 % suffered three injuries.


FOREARM AND WRIST FRACTURES - Comparison to CHIRPP database (1998)

Forearm and wrist fractures represented 66.8% (44.3% and 22.5%, respectively) of all fractures sustained during inline skating. For the overall CHIRPP database for 1998, forearm and wrist fractures represented 32.2% (22.1% and 10.1%, respectively) of all fractures sustained. The proportion of forearm and wrist fractures relative to all other injuries for the inline skating group was 41.1% while the same proportion for the overall 1998 CHIRPP data was 7.1%.


SAFETY DEVICE USE

Safety Device1

Safety device status known2

Safety device

No safety
device

Percent use

Helmet

235

240

49.5

Sport padding

128

240

34.8

1 In 97 cases the patient was wearing both a helmet and sport padding (i.e. 138 with helmet only and 31 with sport padding only); 1 patient was wearing a safety device classified as 'other'.

2 In 455 cases the status of the safety device was unreported.

TREATMENT PROVIDED IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

Disposition

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Left without being seen

7

0.7

Advice only

119

12.4

Treated, follow-up if necessary

279

29

Treated, medical follow-up required

461

47.9

Short stay, observation in emergency

21

2.2

Admitted to hospital 1

75

7.8

Fatal injury 2

0

0

Total

962

100

1 The percentage of admitted cases for all injuries amongst patients 1 year and older in the entire CHIRPP database for 1998 was 6.9%

2 Fatalities counted by CHIRPP include only those patients who were dead on arrival at the emergency department or who died in the emergency department. They do not include people who died before they could be taken to hospital or those who died after hospital admission.


SUMMARY OF PERSONS ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL

Age and sex distribution of injured (admitted cases)

Age
(Years)

Frequency

Percent of
all injuries

Percent of
injuries in
age group

Percent
male

Percent
male
CHIRPP1

5-9

17

22.7

7.5

41.2

59.7

10-14

39

52

7.1

71.8

65.9

15-19

7

9.3

6.5

85.7

64.0

>=20

12

16

17.9

41.7

57.9

Total

75

100

7.9

61.3

60.4

1 The percentage of males amongst admitted patients in the entire CHIRPP database for the given age stratum.

Circumstances of the injury (admitted cases)

Where the injury occurred

Location/Area

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Transport areas

paved road
road - unspecified
sidewalk
bicycle path
driveway
parking lot

41

18
15
4
2
1
1

 

54.7

Unspecified

21

28

Public park

playground
unspecified

6

1
5

8

Own home/other home

garden/yard
unspecified

3

1
2

4

Rink

3

4

School playground

1

1.3

Total

75

100

Circumstances surrounding the injury (admitted cases) 1

Circumstances

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Lost control or balance and fell with no specific cause

direction unknown
fell backwards
fell forwards

51

47
2
2

68

Collision with a motor vehicle

5

6.7

Fell while playing roller hockey (organized and unorganized)

4

5.3

Skating on a hill or incline/excessive speed

4

5.3

Fell because of surface conditions (rocky, slippery, rough or a change in surface (e.g. pavement to grass))

3

4

Insufficient toe clearance (i.e. tripped while skating, no obstacles)

3

4

Stunts or difficult manoeuvre (incl. backward skating)

2

2.7

Roadway or floor obstacle (grates, speed bumps, pebbles)

1

1.3

Collision with a stationary object (wall, parked car)

1

1.3

Avoiding a collision with a pedestrian

1

1.3

Total

75

100

1Each patient was assigned to a single category and percentages were based on the 75 persons injured. Category assignment was based on the level of detail available in the description of the injury.

Body part and nature of injury 1 (admitted cases)

Nature of injury/Body part

Frequency

Percent of Injuries

Fracture

forearm
lower leg
wrist
elbow
ankle
face/head
spine
upper arm
finger

 

56

36
6
5
2
2
2
1
1
1

74.7

Concussion

4

5.3

Intracranial

3

4.0

Minor head injury

3

4.0

Dental

2

2.7

Internal (abdominal)

2

2.7

Other injuries

5

6.7

Total

75

100

1 up to three injuries and body parts can be entered per record; only the most severe injury is indicated in the above table; 84% of the injured sustained only one injury; 5.3% experienced two injuries and 10.7 % suffered three injuries.


Safety device use (admitted cases)

Safety Device1

Safety device status known2

Safety device

No safety
device

Percent use

Helmet

13

16

44.8

Sport padding

3

16

15.8

1 In 3 cases the patient was wearing both a helmet and sport padding (i.e. 10 with helmet only and no cases with sport padding only).

2 In 46 cases the status of the safety device was unreported.


SUGGESTED REFERENCE AND REPORTING INFORMATION

This report and data from it may be copied and circulated freely provided that the source is acknowledged. The following citation is recommended:

Injury data were obtained from the database of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP), Public Health Agency of Canada.

If data from this report are included in any other document or publication, it should be noted, where appropriate, that the information comes from 15 hospitals (10 pediatric and 5 general) across Canada.

For additional information on the CHIRPP program, please contact the Child Injury Section, Public Health Agency of Canada by phone at (613) 941-9918, by FAX at (613) 941-9927 or visit our web site.

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