New research suggests that wearing a helmet during skiing or snowboarding down the slopes can reduce the risk of head injury by 60 percent.
A study that appears in the the Feb. 22 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that injuries made during these winter sports are a usual reason of hospitalization among snowboarders and skiers, and the reason of death in 8 percent of those cases.
"We don’t usually think something can happen to us, but with skiing and snowboarding so much of the surrounding environment is out of your control. But, what you can control is wearing a helmet" - noted an associate director of Providence Hospital Athletic Medicine in Southfield, Michigan, Dr. Michael Montico.
According to the study of Norwegian scientists, most ski resorts do not necessitate helmet use, although skiers in World Cup Events must put them on. Helmet use in winter sports has not been well-researched and that is why some people claim that helmets may boost the risk of injury by limiting the visual field or that the helmet weight could boost the risk of neck injury.
To test these statements, the experts collected data on 3,277 skiers and snowboarders from eight different alpine resorts in Norway who suffered from injury during the 2002 season. They also gathered information from 2,992 controls - skiers and snowboarders who did not suffer from injury while spending vacation at the same resorts.
The experts asked not only about helmet use but also about type of injury, age, sex, nationality, skill level, equipment, whether the equipment was rented or owned, and whether or not people attended to ski school.
Almost 600 of injured people (17.6 percent) incurred head injuries. Most of them — 83 percent —were not wearing helmets.
Generally, the scientists discovered that the snowboarders were much more prone — 53 percent — to incur a head injury than the skiers were. Other groups of risk were beginners at these sports as well as young people and males.
The experts found an important and consistent benefit from helmet use in reducing risk of head injuries for all people, regardless of their age. The study also stated that, rather than being a reason of neck injuries, helmet use reduces the number of neck injuries.
"I believe helmet use should be promoted strongly, and ski resorts could make helmets available for free to skiers and snowboarders when they buy their lift tickets," stated Dr. Roald Bahr, the study co-author and a chairman of the department of sports medicine at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences and the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center in Norway.
Luckily, he said, helmet use becomes more and more popular nowadays.
"Helmets are trendy, just look at the cool designs worn by the Olympians. At least in Norway, there is a trend that wearing a helmet is a sign that you are serious about what you are doing. It used to be that the ‘cool’ snowboarders were unhelmeted, now it’s the other way around," Bahr emphasized.
Montico claims that helmet use should be mandated for youths participating in sports such as skiing and snowboarding where there is a risk of collision. The same should happen with inline skating and bicycling.
Montico warned parents to be careful — every time there is a head injury, the risk of concussion occurs. The symptoms of a possible concussion are: continuing headaches, problems with memory, amnesia, loss of consciousness, vision problems as well as mood problems.
He also claims that youth athletes doing recreational sports with the potential for such an injury should have concussion screening before they start participating. Then, if an injury does occur, physicians have a baseline reading for making comparisons.
