So I disagree with your assessment, particularly around the idea that this is a sensationalist study. The researchers involved were noting that they felt like they were seeing an inordinate number of spinal cord injuries from MTB. Rather than accepting this anecdote as being tue, and simply going out and stating this as a fact (as so manly people do these days) they went out to investigate if the facts backed up their perception, and what they found is yes, it did. They are simply presenting the data, and saying it raises some concerns, which I agree it should.
Now of course the study is imperfect, and I agree with the complaints about a common denominator for easier comparison with other sports. That being said, I think the simple fact that over the same time period that they saw 58 spinal cord injuries, they only had 3 from hockey is by itself something that should make you take pause given how many people in this country play hockey, and that being cross checked into the boards can result in a very similar mechanism to going over the bars. Also, the comparison to football in the US where they found an incidence of 7.1 SCIs per year compared to the 4.1 SCIs per year in BC is troubling because the denominator in the US is 333 million people vs 5.3 million in BC. If you adjust for this difference, and for a moment assume the rate of SCI in MTB is the same in the US you would expect the US to see about 252 SCIs per year from MTB. That is a huge difference compared to what they are seeing in football. Not sure if there are any studies on the incidence of SCI in MTB in the US, but I assume not as the paper likely would have mentioned it.
Regarding your calculated incidence rate based on 160000 people per year at WBP (I am assuming this is only summer visits), yes the overall incidence rate is low, though I suspect your calculation is undercalling it a bit as quite a few of those visits will be by people who are riding the park more than once and the 160000 is the number of total visits, by say (just pulling a number out of my butt for illustrative purposes) 80000 individuals. Still the overall incidence rate based on this revised number would be low. Thankfully. However, these injuries are unbelievably devastating to the individuals and families involved, and we should continue to strive for getting that number as low as possible, and more in line with other sports.
I agree that simply being alive is a risk, and in fact has a 100% mortality rate. No I don‘t think we need to panic, or stop riding bikes. I do think we need to look at this data, start a conversation, think about how as individuals and as a community we can promote safer practices, and push for better protective equipment amongst other points. I am really thankful to these researchers for doing this work as understanding there is a problem is the first step to addressing it.
Nov. 29, 2024, 10:28 a.m. - Moritz Haager
So I disagree with your assessment, particularly around the idea that this is a sensationalist study. The researchers involved were noting that they felt like they were seeing an inordinate number of spinal cord injuries from MTB. Rather than accepting this anecdote as being tue, and simply going out and stating this as a fact (as so manly people do these days) they went out to investigate if the facts backed up their perception, and what they found is yes, it did. They are simply presenting the data, and saying it raises some concerns, which I agree it should. Now of course the study is imperfect, and I agree with the complaints about a common denominator for easier comparison with other sports. That being said, I think the simple fact that over the same time period that they saw 58 spinal cord injuries, they only had 3 from hockey is by itself something that should make you take pause given how many people in this country play hockey, and that being cross checked into the boards can result in a very similar mechanism to going over the bars. Also, the comparison to football in the US where they found an incidence of 7.1 SCIs per year compared to the 4.1 SCIs per year in BC is troubling because the denominator in the US is 333 million people vs 5.3 million in BC. If you adjust for this difference, and for a moment assume the rate of SCI in MTB is the same in the US you would expect the US to see about 252 SCIs per year from MTB. That is a huge difference compared to what they are seeing in football. Not sure if there are any studies on the incidence of SCI in MTB in the US, but I assume not as the paper likely would have mentioned it. Regarding your calculated incidence rate based on 160000 people per year at WBP (I am assuming this is only summer visits), yes the overall incidence rate is low, though I suspect your calculation is undercalling it a bit as quite a few of those visits will be by people who are riding the park more than once and the 160000 is the number of total visits, by say (just pulling a number out of my butt for illustrative purposes) 80000 individuals. Still the overall incidence rate based on this revised number would be low. Thankfully. However, these injuries are unbelievably devastating to the individuals and families involved, and we should continue to strive for getting that number as low as possible, and more in line with other sports. I agree that simply being alive is a risk, and in fact has a 100% mortality rate. No I don‘t think we need to panic, or stop riding bikes. I do think we need to look at this data, start a conversation, think about how as individuals and as a community we can promote safer practices, and push for better protective equipment amongst other points. I am really thankful to these researchers for doing this work as understanding there is a problem is the first step to addressing it.