12 Attitudes Towards the Use of Protective Equipment in Skateboarding Parks

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Skateboarding (SB) is a popular activity for millions of children/adolecents in the United States of America (USA) and Canada. SB injuries result in over 50,000 Emergency department (ED) visits/year in the USA. SB parks (SBP), designed specifically for SB are growing in popularity numbering over 2500 in the USA. Although protective equipment (PE) decreases injury risk, many youths do not wear PE while SB. To determine the attitudes of children/adolescents regarding the use of PE. Subjects ages 10 to 18 years at 5 SBP in Southwestern Ontario (SWO) were surveyed on use and attitudes towards PE. Data collected included years of SB experience, hours per week, type and frequency of use of PE (helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards), number of injuries, visits to ED and their reasons for not wearing PE. Eighty-three subjects (78 males/5 females) completed the survey with an average age of 13.8 yrs and SB 24.1 hrs per week. 55.4% reported never wearing a helmet and 27.7% reported only wearing a helmet occasionally or with “high risk tricks”. 73.5% reported never wearing knee pads, 80.7% reported never wearing elbow pads and 81.9% reported never wearing wrist guards. The reasons for not using PE were: restricts movement (27.7%), uncomfortable (25.3%), and unnecessary (22.9%). The mean number of total injuries for each participant was 54.2, with 1.6 of these injuries requiring a visit to ED. 94% thought they could be seriously hurt while SB. 72.3% thought that protective gear would help protect against injury. 39 subjects surveyed reported never wearing any PE. These subjects were of older age (14.26 years) and had similar SB experience (2.6 yrs). They reported less total injuries (42.6) and less visits to the ED (1.4). Of the 39, 61.5% believe that they could be seriously hurt while SB and that PE prevented injury. This study suggest that there is a very low prevalence of protective gear use in SWO SBP. Low use of PE is not due to a lack of understanding, but instead to a lack of willingness. Future studies in the area should focus on promotion to create a desire to wear PE or enforcement of PE use.