Inline skating related injury (all ages)

October 2008

There were 185 hospital admissions for in-line skating related injuries in Victoria over the two-year period January 2006 - December 2007, an average of 93 per year. In addition, there were a further 565 emergency department presentations over the same time frame, an average of 283 per year.

Age: Children and young teenagers accounted for the majority of inline skating related hospital treatment. Approximately half of all inline skating hospital admissions and ED presentations were of children aged 10-14 years old (51% and 47% respectively). The next most commonly injured age group was 5-9 year olds, accounting for 17% of admissions and 20% of presentations. Adults aged 30 years and older were much less frequently injured (6.5% of admissions, 9% of presentations), while no cases were recorded for children aged 4 years or younger.

Gender: Hospital admissions were evenly divided between the sexes (49% male, 51% female), however there was a moderate over-representation of females for ED presentations (59% female, 41% male). These data reflect that inline skating is somewhat more popular with girls than boys. However, the fact that males are more strongly represented in hospital admissions than emergency department treatments may be an indication that injuries to males tend to be more severe than those to females when they do occur.

(admissions n= 167, presentations n=549)
Source: VAED & VEMD Jan 2006 to Dec 2007
Figure 1: Inline skating related admissions and presentations by age group

Place of occurrence: Inline skate injuries resulting in presentation to an emergency department most frequently occurred at a place for recreation (27%) or in the home (24%). Roads and streets (18%) and sports/athletic areas (12%) were also common locations. Data on the place of occurrence for admissions were unreliable, 78% of cases did not specify the location the injury took place.

Cause: The bulk of cases were due to falls while skating, accounting for 91% of admissions and 87% of presentations. Injuries due to impact with another person or an object were much less common (2% admissions, 5% presentations), as were injuries involving impact with cars or other forms of transport (2% admissions, 1% presentations).

Injury type: Fractures were the most common injury type, representing 87% of admissions and 45% of presentations. Dislocations, sprains and strains were a common injury type among presentations (28%), but few of these cases required admission (2%). Likewise ‘open wounds' and ‘bruising & abrasions' were relatively common among presentations, accounting for around 6% each, but were less common among admissions (2% and 1% respectively). Internal head injuries (mostly concussions) accounted for a small but discernible proportion of cases (2% each).

Source: VAED & VEMD Jan 2006 to Dec 2007
Figure 2: Injury type (admissions n= 167, presentations n=549)

Body region affected: For injuries requiring admission, the most frequently affected body region was the elbow and forearm (66%), followed by the knee & lower leg (13%) and the wrist & hand (4%). The pattern was somewhat different for injuries treated in the emergency department only. The most commonly affected region for presentations was the wrist and hand (45%), followed by the elbow and forearm (24%) with less injury to the knee and lower leg (7%).

Injury prevention (safety tips): Generally, inline skating injuries tended to be fractures or sprains of the wrist, forearm or knee that occurred as a result of children aged 14 or younger falling over while skating. Wristguards are a highly effective protective device and should always be worn. Knee and elbow pads should be worn with a helmet at all times when inline skating to reduce the risk of being injured during a fall. Children should avoid skating on roads or areas open to traffic to limit the risk of a potentially severe vehicular injury.

Further information : For further information regarding preventing inline skating injuries, view the fact sheet. [40KB]

Data source: Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED) & Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) January 2006 to December 2007 (2 years)

Search Strategy: [VAED]: Cases were selected that had the activity when injured code of: ‘U661 In-line skating' [VEMD]: Text narrative included the search terms ‘inline' and spelling variations, Cases were manually checked for relevance and excluded if the narratives were irrelevant or referred to other types of non unintentional injury e.g. assault.