Injuries of competitive skiers in Finland: a three year survey.

The present investigation reports on the injuries of competition skiers in Finland during the period 1976 to 1978. This investigation was made possible through the present system in Finland where an obligatory competition licence is always linked with accident insurance and the authors were able to base their work on an insurance company's records. The total number of licensed competition skiers in 1978 was 7814, 7052 being cross-country skiers, 275 skijumpers and 487 downhill skiers. During the period under investigation 180 accidents leading to an injury were rcorded. Cross-country skiers had 47% of these injuries, downhill skiers 23% and skijumpers 30%. The injury risk in skijumping (47%) proved to be highly significantly (p < 0.001) greater than in the other events (3% and 18%). In the comparison of the injury risk, men (8.5%) outnumbered women (4.4%) (p < 0.001). Men under 30 had more injuries than the older age group (p < 0.001). Muscle and tendon injuries were most common in cross-country skiing. The risk of sustaining a fracture was higher in skijumping than in the downhill events (p < 0.001) and higher in downhill skiing than in cross-country (p < 0.001). On the basis of the present investigation cross-country skiing seems to be a safe activity, but downhill skiers and especially skijumpers seem to be subject to a relatively high risk of injury.