ORIGINAL ARTICLE Injuries Among Skiers and Snowboarders in Quebec

Background: Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are recognized as hazardous, but population-based injury rates or spe-cific risk factors have been difficult to estimate as a result of a lack of complete data for both numerator and denominator. Methods: We used data from 3 surveys to estimate the number of participants and annual number of outings in Quebec by age, sex, activity, and calendar year. Injuries reported by ski patrollers were used to estimate injury rates among skiers and snowboarders for the head and neck, trunk, upper extremity, and lower extremity. Results: Head–neck and trunk injury rates increased over time from 1995–1996 to 1999–2000. There was a steady increase in the rate of injury with younger age for all body regions. The rate of head–neck injury was 50 % higher in snowboarders than in skiers (adjusted rate ratio [ARR] 1.5; 95 % confidence interval 1.3–1.8). Women and girls had a lower rate of head–neck injury (0.73; 0.62–0.87)