Injuries from winter sports and activities: Ice skating

Winter in Canada provides favourable weather conditions for outdoor sports and recreational activities, including skiing, snowboarding, ice skating and sledding. While there are numerous health benefits resulting from these sports and activities, there are also risks of serious injuries.^reference1-3 These risks highlight the importance of personal safety, such as wearing appropriate clothing and safety equipment, and ensuring your gear is in good condition. For more information on winter safety tips, please visit the following sites:

• Be prepared for winter weather
• Ice safety
• Sports gear safety tips
• Winter outdoor safety
• Skiing and snowboarding safety tips

Overall

Between October 1, 2016 and January 11, 2024 there were 4,715 ice skating-related injuries reported in the CHIRPP database, representing 599.1 cases per 100,000 CHIRPP records. Of these injuries, the mean age among patients was 15.0 years and females represented the largest percentage at 64.8%. Among children, those aged 10 to 14 years represented 43.1% of all cases (Table 1). Where reported, over one third of those injured (35.0%; n = 1,649) stated that they were wearing safety equipment when the injury occurred.^reference1

Type of injury

Shown below in Table 2 are the types of ice skating-related injuries. Representing over a third of all injuries and the largest percentage (34.9%; n =1,646) were fractures. Following this category were superficial/open wounds (18.5%), soft tissue injuries (14.4%) and traumatic brain injuries (14.1%). Table 3 provides a percentage breakdown of the body regions where the fractures occurred. As shown, the upper extremity region represented a high percentage of fractures at 70.5%. Among this region, wrist and forearm fractures had the highest count. With respect to the lower extremity region, the lower leg and ankle represented the largest numbers in this category.

Event circumstances associated with fractures

Table 4 shows the event circumstances associated with the reported fractures. More specifically, a 30% random sample (n = 494) of all fractures showed that falls represented the highest percentage of cases at 85.4%, reflecting the nature of this activity. The second and third most common circumstances were individuals coming into contact with a stationary object/structure at 7.1% and individuals attempting a maneuver while skating and subsequently falling or landing poorly at 4.5% (jump, axel, twist).

Emergency department outcomes

Table 5 provides a breakdown of the emergency department outcomes from the ice skating injuries. Of the 4,715 records, the majority of patients required treatments in the emergency departments (67.6%). There were 99 hospital admissions resulting from ice skating injuries, and of those, 82.5% were associated with fractures and 11.3%, with traumatic brain injuries.