Shoulder and Upper Extremity Injuries in Canadian Youth Ice Hockey: Investigating Injury Rates, Types, Severity, Mechanisms, and Risk Factors
Chapter 1: The first project is a systematic review that sought to explore the epidemiology of shoulder-related injury in youth sports. This study examined shoulder injury rates (IR), mechanisms, risk factors, and prevention strategies that have been studied. It was found that sport-related shoulder injuries are prevalent among youth athletes (accounting for a median of 10.9% of all injuries, n=41 studies). Injury risk factors identified included modifiable factors such as strength, range-of-motion, and training load imbalances. The most common injury mechanism was direct shoulder area contact with another person or an object in the playing environment. Considering the limitations identified by this review, it is clear that a paucity of research exists with respect to the study of shoulder-related injury prevention. Limitations of this systematic review were the heterogeneity of injury surveillance methods and definitions used, as well as the low quality of the included studies. Chapter 2: The second project is a secondary analysis of data collected in the Safe2Play longitudinal cohort study. This study sought to describe shoulder-related injury rates, types, severity, and mechanisms in youth female and male ice hockey players. An exploratory objective of this study was to identify risk factors for shoulder-related injury (including body checking policy, injury history, player size, level of play, sex, and playing position). This study found that shoulder injury has a high injury rate in youth ice hockey. Most shoulder injuries resulted in more than one week of time-loss from sport. Risk factors for shoulder injury included participation in a body-checking league, previous history of any injury in the previous 12 months, and the non-goalie playing position. Limitations of this study were related to the low number of practice-related shoulder injuries, as well as infrequent injuries to female participants – meaning that risk factor analysis was only feasible for game-related injuries among males.
injury prevention, shoulder, ice hockey, youth sport, systematic review
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