Factors Associated With Lower Extremity Injury Rates in Youth Ice Hockey Players

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Pediatric Orthopedics
• Injury Epidemiology

Background:

• Youth ice hockey involves significant risk of lower extremity injuries.
• Understanding injury incidence across different age groups and playing contexts is crucial for prevention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the incidence of knee, ankle, and lower extremity injuries in youth ice hockey players aged under-13, under-15, and under-18.
• To identify factors associated with game- and practice-related lower extremity injuries in these players.

Main Methods:

• Prospective cohort study over 5 seasons involving 4418 youth ice hockey players.
• Validated injury surveillance methodology including baseline measures and exposure tracking.
• Multilevel Poisson regression analysis adjusted for various covariates to determine injury rate ratios.

Main Results:

• Game-related lower extremity injury rates were highest in under-18 (1.01/1000 game hours), followed by under-15 (0.64/1000 game hours) and under-13 (0.33/1000 game hours) players.
• Practice-related injury rates were lower than game-related rates across all age groups.
• Body checking policies (IRR=1.88), female sex (IRR=1.92), and previous 12-month injury history (IRR=1.43) were significantly associated with higher game-related injury rates.

Conclusions:

• Lower extremity injury rates in youth ice hockey are substantially higher during games compared to practices.
• Playing in leagues with body checking, being female, and having a recent injury history are risk factors for increased game-related injuries.