title: Hip pads reduce the overall risk of injuries in recreational snowboarders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose is to determine common injuries in recreational snowboarding as targets of preventive strategy and protective gear that reduces the overall risk of these injuries.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects comprised 5561 injured recreational snowboarders. On the basis of patients' self-reporting form, 'the common snowboarding injuries' (cut-off point >2.0% in prevalence) were decided, and all injured snowboarders were categorised into two groups: common injuries and the other injuries (control). Several factors such as age, gender, self-reported skill level, experienced seasons, experienced days, previous snowboarding school attendance and the use of protective gears (helmet, elbow pads, wrist guards, backbone guard, hip pads and knee pads) were recorded. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate which type of protective gear reduced the overall risk of the common injuries.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The common snowboarding injuries consisted of eight types, in which distal radial fracture was the most common (17.7%), followed by head injury (9.4%) and clavicle fracture (6.5%). In univariate regression analysis, skill level, experienced seasons, experienced days and the use of hip pads and knee pads were manifested potential risk factors on the common injuries. In subsequent multivariate regression analysis, the use of hip pads was related with a lower overall risk of these common injuries (OR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.75 to 0.95), specifically that of distal radial fracture and glenohumeral dislocation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of hip pads is recommended for snowboarders as it reduces the overall risk of common snowboarding injuries.
authors: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Gifu University, Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu 501-1194, Japan.
authors: Daichi
authors: D
authors: Ishimaru
authors: Hiroyasu
authors: H
authors: Ogawa
authors: Kazuhiko
authors: K
authors: Wakahara
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Sumi
authors: Yasuhiko
authors: Y
authors: Sumi
authors: Katsuji
authors: K
authors: Shimizu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001076:Aptitude; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D004204:Joint Dislocations / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011482:Protective Devices; D011998:Recreation; D012307:Risk Factors; D012865:Skiing / Q000293:injuries*; D055815:Young Adult