SOS International reveals ski injury data
During the 2015-16 ski season, SOS International’s alarm centre, doctors and nurses assisted more than 1,700 injured ski tourists from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. According to the data gathered, the knee is the part of the body that is most commonly injured; knee injuries account for almost twice the number of injuries to the lower legs, ankles and feet, which rank second on the list of the most common skiing injuries. The lower parts of the legs are affected more than the entire rest of the body: injuries to knees and downwards account for 55 per cent of all skiing injuries for Nordic tourists.
The risk of sustaining a head injury, in particular concussion, is uppermost in the minds of European ski tourists it seems, and it has become common to wear a helmet when skiing. SOS International commented: “This is positive, as this type of injury may have serious consequences. When studying the injury statistics, however, the head injuries probably take up more space in the head than the head takes up space in the statistics. Head injuries only represent a small share of five per cent, and last season, they dropped from a fifth to a sixth place on the list of the most common skiing injuries.” In general, the distribution of the types of injury has been very stable in recent years, and the head injuries’ drop from the fifth to the sixth place is due to minor variations that are too insignificant to be considered as tendencies, noted the company.
Statistics gathered showed that men take the unfortunate win over women on the overall number of skiing injuries sustained. In total, the data showed 56 per cent of assistance rendered was to men, and 44 per cent was to women. Among the injured Nordic ski tourists, 41- to 50-year-olds accounted for the largest share of the injuries, and SOS International assisted more injured ski tourists among the 41- to 60-year-old age group than among the young 11- to 30-year-old group.
Disclaimer from SOS International: Since SOS International is not able to compare the number of injuries with figures on the total number of travellers and their gender and age distribution, we cannot conclude unambiguously that men have a significantly higher risk of becoming injured than women, or that middle-aged and elderly women are more at risk of sustaining injuries than other age groups.