Skiing and snowboarding linked to some serious dangers in children

Washington: Sports like skiing and snowboarding are not only a great way to keep children active in the winter season, but they can also be linked to some serious danger. Skiing can cause injuries in younger children, which are more likely to involve fractures to the head or face, according to new research being presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2019 National Conference and Exhibition.

The research abstract -- "Pediatric Snow Sport Injuries Differ by Age" -- was presented during the AAP 2019 National Conference and Exhibition. Researchers looked at a cross-sectional analysis of the 2009 and 2012 Kids' Inpatient Database, examining 845 hospital admissions for snow sports injuries in kids.

They found that over half of hospitalised children required major surgical intervention, and elementary school-age children were at significantly greater odds than those older than high school to suffer a skull or facial fracture.

Middle school, high school and those older were more likely to experience an intra-abdominal injury.

"We were interested to find that the type of injuries children had varied according to their age, and we believe these findings can better inform educational and legislative efforts aimed at reducing injuries in children who participate in winter sports," said Robert J McLoughlin, MD, MSCI.

"These injuries can be very severe and should be a concern to any parent with a child involved in these sports. Almost a quarter -- 23 per cent of children -- suffered intracranial injuries, which we found were more common among young children," added Robert J McLoughlin.

Of the young skiers who were admitted into hospitals in this research, 75.8 per cent were male and 87.4 pc white. The injuries included lower extremity fractures (28.7 pc), intracranial injury (22.7 pc), splenic injury (15.6 pc), upper extremity fracture (15.5 pc), and skull fracture (9.1 pc).