As teenagers and children flock to backyard and recreational pools during the summer, public awareness needs to be directed towards preventing injuries sustained from diving or jumping off of diving boards, platforms, and/or diving into shallow pools.
Results of Research Study
Data was reviewed from the National Electronic Surveillance system (NEISS) of the U.S. consumer Product Safety Commission by Day, C., Stolz, U., Mehan, T., Smith, G., and McKenzie, L (August, 2008) and published in the Journal of Pediatrics. The authors studied the number and type of diving-related injuries in the United States among children and adolescents (less than 20 years of age) over a 17 year period (1990-2006).
Even with parents and lifeguards on duty and providing supervision, catastrophic, moderate, and minor injuries occur on a regular basis from teenagers and children jumping/ and/or diving off of either diving boards or platforms. The purpose of this study was to undertake a comprehensive review of diving-related injuries on young adults and children under the age of 20.
Although catastrophic head and neck injuries are well-documented in the literature from swimmers hitting their heads on the bottom of shallow pools, moderate and minor injuries have not been comprehensively reviewed until this study. Knowledge of the results of this study can provide parents and others supervising pools with information to reduce injuries.
Injuries were reviewed by type (laceration, soft tissue injury, strain /sprain, other), body part, location (private or public pool, natural body of water), dive height, phase of the dive sequence that the injury occurred (on the board/platform, in flight, during water entry, and underwater), dive direction (forward, backward), and dive skill (jump and/or cannonball, head-first dive, or flip and/or handstand).
Types of Injuries
Lacerations (33.9%) and soft tissue injuries (24.3%) were the most common types of injuries with the head/neck being the most common body area injured (38.2%). Only 4.7% of injuries were serious enough to warrant hospitalization.
Interference with the diving board or platform was the leading cause of injury (43.9%) with the highest percentage of injuries occurring during the initial dive sequence off the board or platform (32.3%) followed by injuries occurring in flight (29.8%).
Boys had almost double the odds of a head and/or neck injury when compared to other body regions. They also tended to be injured more during the underwater sequence of the dive with twice the number of injuries from hitting the bottom of the pool (as compared to any other sequence of the dive).
Mechanism of Injury
The results revealed a three times higher rate of lacerations when the dive direction was backward (versus forwards), and a two times higher rate of lacerations (from contact with the diving board) than any other point of the dive sequence).
The rate of injury was significantly higher (25.3 times) from contact with the diving board if the direction of the dive was backwards and nine times higher if the skill performed was a flip or a handstand. Injuries from contact with the water were also significantly higher (16.4 times) when the height of the dive was greater than one meter.
The results indicated that collision with the diving board/platform caused the highest number of injuries. Second, the results clearly indicated that injuries are increased when children attempt higher-skilled maneuvers such as flips, handstands, and/or backward dives.
Reducing Injuries Through Basic Board Training
Reducing these types of injuries can occur with proper training and instruction on diving techniques (approach, footwork, take-off, body position in the air, body position upon water entry) prior to children attempting advanced skills off of a diving/board or platform. Time spent on teaching basic diving board skills can prevent time spent in the local emergency room.
Terry Zeigler - Educating through writing with over twenty-five years of experience as a Kinesiology Professor and Certified Athletic Trainer.
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