With winter and the holidays approaching, many athletes and families are heading to the mountains for skiing and snowboarding. These sports bring excitement, fresh air, and an exhilarating “high-risk, high-reward” feeling. They also come with a risk of head injuries. A major scientific review article, “An Evidence Based Review: Efficacy of Safety Helmets in Reduction of Head Injuries in Recreational Skiers and Snowboarders,” examines decades of data on winter-sport head injuries between January 1980 and April 2011. Reviewers included 16 peer-reviewed articles that met strict criteria in their evidence based review, and found that helmets are effective, but not perfect, and that additional strategies are needed to better protect the brain.
Key Findings
- Proper helmet use lowers the risk of head injury: The majority of studies reviewed showed statistically significant reductions in head injuries among participants who wore helmets.
- Severe injuries still happen in cases where participants are wearing a helmet: The review notes that factors such as speed, collision type, and rotational forces may lead to brain injury even when a helmet is worn properly.
How EyeBOX Supports Winter-Sport Safety
Helmets are important, but they cannot fully prevent concussion. EyeBOX evaluates for concussion without relying on symptom reporting, which may be important in skiing and snowboarding where athletes may brush off a fall or assume they are fine because they wore a helmet. EyeBOX offers a fast, test without the need for a pre-injury baseline that can identify functional changes after a crash, giving clinicians a clearer picture of whether the brain may have been affected even when there is no visible sign of injury. This provides families, athletes, and sports programs a more complete safety net.
Winter sports involve changing terrain, variable speeds, and mixed skill levels. These conditions increase the likelihood of falls and crashes, especially during busy times, like the holiday season. Wear a helmet and ski safe! And if you do experience a head hit, proper evaluation is essential.