Risk of injury associated with bodychecking experience among youth hockey players

Abstract

Background: In a previous prospective study, the risk of concussion and all injury was more than threefold higher among Pee Wee ice hockey players (ages 11–12 years) in a league that allows bodychecking than among those in a league that does not. We examined whether two years of bodychecking experience in Pee Wee influenced the risk of concussion and other injury among players in a Bantam league (ages 13–14) compared with Bantam players introduced to bodychecking for the first time at age 13. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study involving hockey players aged 13–14 years in the top 30% of divisions of play in their leagues. Sixty-eight teams from the province of Alberta (n = 995), whose players had two years of bodychecking experience in Pee Wee, and 62 teams from the province of Quebec (n = 976), whose players had no bodychecking experience in Pee Wee, participated. We estimated incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for injury and for concussion. Results: There were 272 injuries (51 concussions) among the Bantam hockey players who had bodychecking experience in Pee Wee and 244 injuries (49 concussions) among those without such experience. The adjusted IRRs for game-related injuries and concussion overall between players with bodychecking experience in Pee Wee and those without it were as follows: injury overall 0.85 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.63 to 1.16); concussion overall 0.84 (95% CI 0.48 to 1.48); and injury resulting in more than seven days of time loss (i.e., time between injury and return to play) 0.67 (95% CI 0.46 to 0.99). The unadjusted IRR for concussion resulting in more than 10 days of time loss was 0.60 (95% CI 0.26 to 1.41). Interpretation: The risk of injury resulting in more than seven days of time loss from play was reduced by 33% among Bantam hockey players in a league where bodychecking was allowed two years earlier in Pee Wee compared with Bantam players introduced to bodychecking for the first time at age 13. In light of the increased risk of concussion and other injury among Pee Wee players in a league where bodychecking is permitted, policy regarding the age at which hockey players are introduced to bodychecking requires further consideration.