Influence of viewing professional ice hockey on youth hockey injuries

Most televised National Hockey League (NHL) games include violent body checks, illegal hits and fights. We postulated that minor league players imitated these behaviours and that not seeing these games would reduce the rate of injuries among younger hockey players.

Using a quasi-experimental design, we compared 7 years of televised NHL matches (2002-2009) with the year of the NHL lock-out (2004/2005). Data from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) were used to identify the injuries and to ascertain whether they were due to intentional contact and illegal acts including fights.

We found no significant differences in the proportions of all injuries and those involving intentional contact, violations or illegal acts among male minor league hockey players during the year when professional players were locked out and the years before and after the lock-out.

We concluded that not seeing televised NHL violence may not reduce injuries, although a possible effect may have been obscured because there was a striking increase in attendance at equally violent minor league games during the lock-out.