Does listening to music with an audio ski helmet impair reaction time to peripheral stimuli?

The Influence of Protective Headgear on the Visual Field of Recreational-Level Skiers

The benefit of protective headgear for recreational skiers is an ongoing debate in the snow sports industry, and there are a lot of opposing opinions. Due to the dynamic conditions in which winter sports are performed, athletes demand rapid and constant processing of visual information. A sufficient level of anticipation helps athletes to properly position themselves to reduce the forces transferred to the head or even move to avoid a collision. To objectively identify the impact of protective headgear on the visual field when skiing, it is necessary to conduct suitable measurements. The sample consisted of 43 recreational-level skiers (27 M, 16 F; age 31.6 ± 8.23 years). A predefined testing protocol on an ortoreter was used to assess the visual field for three conditions of wearing protective headgear. Differences in perceived visual stimuli between the three conditions were evaluated by repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Based on the observed results, it can be concluded that the combination of wearing a ski helmet and ski goggles significantly negatively influences visual performance in a way that the visual field is narrowed, for both helmet users and non-users, only when comparing the tested conditions. When comparing helmet users and non-users, there are no differences in the amount of visual impairment; therefore, the habit of wearing a helmet does not influence the ability of perceiving visual stimuli.

Effects of Visual and Auditory Perturbations on Ski-Specific Balance among Males and Females-A Randomized Crossover Trial

Injuries in skiing show sex-specific differences, especially when visual perception is reduced. Reduced visual perception impairs balance, which plays an important role in avoiding skiing injuries. However, males and females might cope differently with reduced visual perception. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate sex-related effects of environmental perturbations (reduced visual perception and listening to music) on ski-specific balance. Using a crossover design, ski-specific balance was tested in 50 young adults (50% female) in four conditions: with and without listening to music and/or with and without reduced visual perception (ski goggles with occlusion foil). A four × two (condition by sex) mixed ANOVA revealed a significant condition by sex interaction, partial η² = 0.06. Females showed an increase in balance from the condition without music/with normal visual perception to the condition with music/with normal visual perception, while males showed a decrease. Balance was significantly higher in females compared to males, partial η² = 0.31. The findings suggest that balance is affected differently by environmental perturbations in females and males. However, the differences observed were not in line with our initial hypotheses, which might be because the model was too simplistic for how visual/auditory perturbations may affect balance.

Feature-specific terrain park-injury rates and risk factors in snowboarders: a case-control study

Background

Snowboarding is a popular albeit risky sport and terrain park (TP) injuries are more severe than regular slope injuries. TPs contain man-made features that facilitate aerial manoeuvres. The objectives of this study were to determine overall and feature-specific injury rates and the potential risk factors for TP injuries.

Methods

Case–control study with exposure estimation, conducted in an Alberta TP during two ski seasons. Cases were snowboarders injured in the TP who presented to ski patrol and/or local emergency departments. Controls were uninjured snowboarders in the same TP. κ Statistics were used to measure the reliability of reported risk factor information. Injury rates were calculated and adjusted logistic regression was used to calculate the feature-specific odds of injury.

Results

Overall, 333 cases and 1261 controls were enrolled. Reliability of risk factor information was κ>0.60 for 21/24 variables. The overall injury rate was 0.75/1000 runs. Rates were highest for jumps and half-pipe (both 2.56/1000 runs) and lowest for rails (0.43/1000 runs) and quarter-pipes (0.24/1000 runs). Compared with rails, there were increased odds of injury for half-pipe (OR 9.63; 95% CI 4.80 to 19.32), jumps (OR 4.29; 95% CI 2.72 to 6.76), mushroom (OR 2.30; 95% CI 1.20 to 4.41) and kickers (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.27 to 3.12).

Conclusions

Higher feature-specific injury rates and increased odds of injury were associated with features that promote aerial manoeuvres or a large drop to the ground. Further research is required to determine ways to increase snowboarder safety in the TP.