The Impact of Ski Geometry Data and Standing Height on the Risk of Falling in Recreational Alpine Skiers

Gerhard Ruedl,Markus Posch,Martin Burtscher,Martin Faulhaber,Klaus Greier

doi:10.3390/app11219912

Gerhard Ruedl, Markus Posch + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app11219912

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of individual, equipment-related and environmental factors associated with falls among adult recreational skiers. Individual, equipment-related (ski geometry data) and environmental data were collected by questionnaire among uninjured skiers with and without reported falls during the skiing day. Ski length, side cut radius, and width of the waist were directly recorded from the ski and standing height was measured using a digital sliding caliper. Absolute ski length was relativized to body height. A total of 1174 recreational skiers participated in this study, of whom 13.5% (n = 158) reported at least one fall during the skiing day. Results of the multiple logistic regression analysis found that a lower age, a very good/good fitness level, a moderate skiing speed, a lower relativized ski length, and fresh and grippy snow conditions decreased, while a lower skill level, a larger sidecut radius and an easy slope difficulty increased risk of falling on ski slopes. Besides individual and environmental factors, a lower relativized ski length and a lower sidecut radius decreased the risk of falling. Considering these ski geometry parameters when buying new skis could potentially decrease the risk of falling and thus prevent injuries in recreational skiers.

Highlights

A total of 1174 recreational skiers participated in this study, of whom 13.5% (n = 158) reported at least one fall during the skiing day
The two groups significantly differ within age, fitness level, skill level, preferred skiing speed, relativized ski length, sidecut radius, waist width of the ski, standing height of the front and rear components of the ski binding, snow and weather conditions and slope difficulty
Results of the multiple logistic regression analysis found a lower age, a very good/good fitness level, a moderate preferred skiing speed, a lower relativized ski length, and fresh and grippy snow conditions were associated with a decreasing risk of falling while a lower skill level, a larger sidecut radius and an easy slope difficulty were associated with an increase in the risk of falling

Summary

Introduction

The injury risk of less than two injuries per 1000 ski days seems low nowadays in Austria, the total number of injuries per year remains high because of the huge population at risk [2,3]. In Austria, self-inflicted falls, i.e., falls without influence of other persons, are the most common accidental causes leading to an injury on ski slopes, at 80–90% [2,3], as well as leading to a traumatic death on ski slopes, at about 47% [4]. As falling during skiing is the most important reason for injuries and traumatic fatalities on ski slopes, studies identifying risk factors for falling seem important to implement evidence-based preventive measures

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