Hockey body checking increases injury risk in kids
Last Updated: 2006-02-21 9:58:21 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Ice hockey players younger than high school age may not be ready for the game's hard knocks, according to Canadian researchers.
Their study of nearly 5,000 boys in youth hockey leagues found that injury rates were higher among children on teams where "body checking" was allowed as early as age 10. Broken bones and concussions were among the risks.
The findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, add to the debate over when to begin teaching young hockey players how to body check.
Body checking refers to legal moves in which hockey players knock into an opponent to get the puck. Medical groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest that body checking be barred for players 15 years old or younger.
Others argue, however, that it's best to teach children how to check properly starting at an early age. This, they say, could prevent serious injuries later on, when teenage players are much bigger and stronger.
The Canadian Hockey Association allows body checking to be introduced at age 12, and in one province -- Ontario -- a pilot project was launched to teach the tactic to 10- and 11-year-olds in certain competitive leagues.
The investigators, led by Dr. Alison Macpherson of York University in Toronto, compared injury rates among boys in these Ontario leagues with those of boys in Quebec leagues, where checking is limited to players age 14 and older.
Between 1995 and 2002, the researchers found, 63 percent of injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms occurred in the Ontario teams. Boys on these teams were nearly twice as likely to suffer a checking-related injury as those in the Quebec leagues.
The children on Ontario teams also had higher risks of bone fractures and concussions, which, though not always related to checking, were more common in leagues that allowed body checks at age 10.
"On the basis of our results, we suggest that children should play hockey only in noncontact leagues until at least the age of 14," Dr. Macpherson's group recommends of York University in Toronto.
"In our opinion, it's better if better if body checking is introduced later," she told Reuters Health.
The study, Macpherson said, found no support for the notion that it's safer for children to learn checking when their bodies are smaller. Among players age 14 and up, who all practiced checking, those in early-checking leagues still had nearly twice the risk of suffering a checking injury.
The findings are based on government data collected from pediatric emergency departments in Quebec and Ontario. Between 1995 and 2002, the hospitals reported 4,736 hockey-related injuries among boys ages 10 to 15.
On teams where checking was allowed, 10- to 13-year-olds were 86 percent more likely to suffer a checking-related injury than their peers on teams that limited the practice to older players. They were also 42 percent more likely to sustain a concussion and 25 percent more likely to suffer a broken bone.
Hockey Canada, the national governing body for amateur hockey, currently has several pilot projects in place to research the effects of teaching body checking to players as young as 9.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, February 2006.
