Injuries from winter sports and activities: Sledding and tobogganing

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 4,376 sledding/tobogganing-related injuries reported in the CHIRPP database, representing 556.0 cases per 100,000 CHIRPP records. Of these injuries, the mean age was 10.0 years and males represented 54.4% of case. Among children, those aged 5 to 9 years represented nearly half of all cases at 43.6% (Table 1). Where reported, 7.5% (n = 327) of those injured stated that they were wearing safety equipment when the injury occurred.^reference1

Type of injury

As shown in Table 2, the types of sledding/tobogganing-related injuries varied. The three most common types, representing 70% of all cases, were (i) fractures (32.0%), (ii) traumatic brain injuries (21.4%) [concussion: 11.0%; minor head injury: 10.0%; and intracranial injury (0.5%)] and (iii) superficial/open wounds (16.5%). Nearly 75% of all fractures were those concerning the upper and lower extremity regions (Table 3). A more detailed breakdown presented in Table 3 shows that the wrist and forearm, and lower leg and ankle were the most common fractured areas in the upper and lower extremity regions, respectively.

Event circumstances associated with fractures

Table 4 shows the event circumstances associated with sledding/tobogganing-related fractures. More specifically, a 30% random sample (n = 421) of all 1,401 sledding/tobogganing-related fractures showed that falls and hitting stationary objects/structures (trees, fences and rocks) represented nearly two thirds of the sampled cases (n = 65.1%).

Emergency department outcomes

Table 5 provides a breakdown of the emergency department outcomes from the sledding/tobogganing-related injuries. Of the 4,376 records, the majority of patients required treatments in the emergency departments (58.5%). There were 274 hospital admissions, and of these, 69.3% were associated with fractures, 13.9% with traumatic brain injuries and 8.6% with internal injuries.