Abstract
Incidence, Mechanism and Risk Factors for Injury in Youth Rock Climbers
Participation in rock climbing has grown significantly in recent years, in both youth and adult populations. Injury patterns, incidence rates, and mechanisms of injury have been studied mostly in adults, focusing on injuries occurring during traditional rock climbing, ice climbing, or alpine climbing. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine injury rates, mechanism, and risk factors for youths who participate in rock climbing and bouldering.
The investigators distributed surveys to recreational and elite youth climbers between the ages of 11 and 19 years at 10 indoor climbing facilities in Alberta, Canada, between October 2012 and March 2013. The questionnaire included demographic information, climbing experience, discipline, time spent climbing per week, and injuries sustained while climbing, along with anatomic location of injury, mechanism of injury, and subsequent time lost from climbing. In all, 285 climbers were approached, 62 competitive and 223 recreational climbers (n = 285), of whom 126 (44%) consented to participate, and 116 (41%) completed the questionnaire.
The investigators found that the injury incidence rate was 4.44 injuries per 1000 climbing hours (95% confidence interval: 3.74 to 5.23), with sprains (27%) and strains (26%) predominating. The primary mechanism of injury was repetitive overuse (42%), and the most common injury locations were hands and fingers (21%). Falling resulted in a larger percentage of lower extremity injuries. These findings are consistent with reported rates, injury types, and mechanism of injury in adults. Older age, injury in another sport, and preventative taping were risk factors for injury in young climbers.
This study was limited by selection bias, self-reporting, and power as the target sample size of 206 was not achieved. The study does provide insight into the injuries and risk factors for young climbers, however, and provides guidance for further investigation into modifiable risk factors, which, in turn, can be used to develop preventative strategies to target high-risk youth climbers.
(Br J Sports Med. 2015;1:44–50) KY Woollings, CD McKay, J Kang, et al.