Helmet Use and Risk of Neck Injury in Skiers and Snowboarders

摘要

In a case-control study, the authors examined the relation between helmet use and neck injury among Que ´bec,nCanada, skiers and snowboarders using 10 years of ski patrol data (1995–1996 to 2004–2005). Cases werendefined as persons with any neck injury (n ¼ 2,986), an isolated neck injury requiring ambulance evacuationn(n ¼ 522), or a cervical spine fracture or dislocation (n ¼ 318). The control group included persons with non-head,nnon-neck injuries (n ¼ 97,408) in an unmatched analysis. The authors also matched cases with controls injured atnthe same ski area, during the same activity (skiing vs. snowboarding), and during the same season. Helmet usenwas the primary exposure variable. For the unmatched analysis, the authors used unconditional logistic regressionnand adjusted for clustering by ski area and other covariates. They used conditional logistic regression for thenmatched analysis. Multiple imputation was used to address missing values. The adjusted odds ratio was 1.09 (95%nconfidence interval (CI): 0.95, 1.25) for any neck injury, 1.28 (95%CI: 0.96, 1.71) for isolated ambulance-evacuatednneck injuries, and 1.02 (95%CI: 0.79, 1.31) for cervical spine fractures or dislocations. Similar results were found innthe conditional logistic regression analysis and in analyses restricted to children under age 11 years. These resultsndo not suggest that helmets increase the risk of neck injuries among skiers and snowboarders.