Female Ice Hockey Injury Rates May Be Higher Than Expected Says AOSSM

1/15/2003

From: Brian Haefs of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, 847-292-4900; E-mail: brian@aossm.org

ROSEMONT, Ill., Jan. 15 -- The incidence of injury in female ice hockey may be higher than previously believed, reports a new study. More females are participating in ice hockey at club, collegiate, and international levels than ever before. Because the rules do not allow intentional body checking in female ice hockey, it was assumed to be safer than male ice hockey.

A study published in the January-February 2003 issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that this may not be the case. For the study, researchers collected data from the Canadian Intercollegiate Sport Injury Registry over the entire 1998-1999 varsity ice hockey season. Six male and six female teams (a total of 114 women and 147 men) from the Canada West University Athletic Association participated in the study.

Each player completed a preseason injury history questionnaire. For each athlete exposure-game, practice, or off-ice training session-team physical therapists reported "any event requiring assessment and treatment by a team therapist or physician, any facial or dental injury, or any transient neurologic injury." For this study, injury was defined as any event causing a subsequent time loss from participation in ice hockey.

In both male and female ice hockey players, concussion was most common injury type and resulted in the most time loss. In total, 41 female players (36 percent) sustained 66 injuries and 84 male players (57 percent) sustained 161 injuries during the varsity season studied. The difference in injury rates per 1,000 athlete exposures (7.77 for female athletes and 9.19 for male athletes) was not considered statistically significant.

In a separate interview, Dr. Willem H. Meeuwisse, one of the researchers of the study, said, "It is difficult to say how these figures will carry over to other levels of hockey, since the skill level is fairly uniform at the varsity level. The important thing in this study is that the skill level was the same for men and women, so we feel that the data are comparable between them."

He continued, "Our hope is that this study will provide a foundation for future work in prevention of injuries. Further research is needed to determine exactly what can be done to prevent injuries in women's hockey." Issues requiring further study include the impact of skill level on injury rates and the exact types of contact that produce concussion.

AJSM is a bimonthly publication of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, a world leader in sports medicine education, research, communication, and fellowship. Copies of this paper are available to media upon request from AOSSM Director of Communications Brian Haefs (brian@aossm.org; 847/292-4900).