SAFETY IN CANADIAN JUNIOR ICE HOCKEY - THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ICE SURFACE SIZE AND INJURIES AND AGGRESSIVE PENALTIES IN THE ONTARIO-HOCKEY-LEAGUE

Objective: To investigate the associations between ice surface size an d injuries and aggressive penalties in Canadian junior hockey. D esign : Injury (all injuries and neurotraumas) and penalty data (aggressive and nonaggressive) were categorized into the ice surface size on which they occurred: larger than standard (LTS), standard (S), and smaller than standard (STS). Participants: There were 328 injury records and 5 38 penalty records collected for all 16 teams in the Ontario Hockey Le ague (OHL) during the 1993-94 season. The OHL is a junior A league com prised of amateur players aged similar to 16-20 Fears. Main outcome me asure: In the absence of any evidence, the null hypotheses of no assoc iation between injuries and ice surface size and penalties and ice sur face size were tested. Results: The rates of injury per game were inve rsely related to ice surface sizes (95% confidence intervals: LTS, 0.3 3 +/- 0.20, S: 0.58 +/- 0.05: and STS, 0.76 +/- 0.06). The association s for all of the paired comparisons of these rates with ice surface si ze were statistically significant (p < 0.01). Neurotraumas per game an d aggressive penalty rates showed no significant relationship with ice surface size (p < 0.05). Conclusions: It was concluded that ice surfa ce size is a risk factor to consider in assessing overall injury rate. The larger the ice surface is, the lower is the rate of injury. It ap pears that the medical community was con sct in suspecting ice surface size as a factor in creating a safer environment for ice hockey playe rs. Penalty data do not appear to he important factors in relation to ice surface size.