Etiologic factors of ice hockey injuries in Korean high school players.

BACKGROUND Ice hockey is a competitive sport and ice hockey injuries can be influenced by many physical and psychological factors. Young ice hockey players are especially vulnerable to injury due to their relative lack of experience and rapid physical growth during their juvenile years. Up to now there has been no survey of the physical, psychological, and environmental etiological factors based on the Korean high school ice hockey players population. PURPOSE The purpose of our study was to evaluate, through a comprehensive survey, the incidence of ice hockey injuries according to age and the relationship between etiological factors and injuries in high school students. STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional study. METHODS One hundred nineteen ice hockey players in Korean high schools were recruited for this study. The study was conducted by a self-administered questionnaire survey. The researcher explained the purpose of the survey and how to fill it out. Individual questionnaires were distributed to participants. Chi-squared tests were used to evaluate the relationship between the independent and dependent values. There was a significant difference between a player's age and injury incidence (P = .018). The injury level of each position showed a significant tendency (P = .055). Age was highly correlated with the number of total injuries (P = .019). RESULTS The average demographic characteristics of those surveyed were age (16.7 years), play line (2.2), height (174.8 cm), weight (69.6 kg), and body mass index (23.4). The shoulder was the most frequent injury area and the knee was the most common cause of hospital visits. There was a higher injury incidence in older groups; however, there was no correlation with body mass index, position, and play line. The causative factors were divided into physical factors, psychological factors, and environmental factors. Generally, 3 factors were not closely regarded as etiologic factors of ice hockey injury. However, deficiency of fitness in the physical factor, aggressiveness in the psychological factor, and injury by other players in the environmental factor showed a high etiological correlation for ice hockey injury. CONCLUSION The multiple aspects of this etiological factor analysis showed modest results. However, based on our results, in order to reduce the long-term implications of youth ice hockey injuries and associated public health costs, comprehensive efforts, including psychological and environmental factor modification, should be put in place.