Numbers highest in Pee Wee and Atom

TORONTO, October 6, 2004 -- The issue of body checking in youth hockey requires ongoing research, says Alison Macpherson, an epidemiologist with York University’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science, who specializes in childhood injury research and prevention.

 

Macpherson, who will release her own study shortly on the effects of body checking in children’s hockey in Ontario and Quebec, was responding to data released yesterday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). The CIHI study indicates that while the number of Canadian hockey injuries requiring treatment in an emergency room is falling, serious injuries due to body checking are on the rise, particularly among children.

 

“The numbers published by CIHI suggest that checking should start at an older age,” Macpherson says, referring to the decision by some minor hockey associations in Ontario to allow full body contact in players as young as nine.

 

Macpherson, an expert in injury prevention, said more noteworthy than the overall numbers is the concentration of checking-related injuries among children. "There is a peak among boys in the atom and peewee age groups, ages nine to 14,” she notes. “The number of injuries for these children appears to be quite high.

 

“Playing hockey should be fun, it shouldn't be sending so many kids to hospital,” Macpherson adds.

 

Prof. Macpherson works with the Canadian Institute for Health Information as a spokesperson and is also scientific consultant to child safety groups. She recently conducted a study on playground equipment for the Toronto District School Board and earned her doctorate studying bicycle helmets and efforts to legislate their use.

 

York University is the leading interdisciplinary teaching and research university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city.  The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 21 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries.  This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges.

 

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For further information, please contact:

George McNeillie, Assistant Director, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 x22091 /
gmcneil@yorku.ca