Duh File: Rock Climbing Injuries

What would you say if I told you that a study found that rock climbers who fell distances of more than 20 feet generally had more severe injuries and more hospitalizations than rock climbers who fell shorter distances?

Yeah, that’s one that I’m filing in the Duh Files.

According to this press release, First national study to examine rock climbing-related injuries , issued by Nationwide Children’s Hospital ,

“We found that the climbers who fell from heights higher than 20 feet accounted for 70 percent of the patients there were hospitalized for a rock climbing-related injury,”

Now, in all seriousness, the study was done to find out what types of injuries rock climbers sustained and the point was to show that it is a sport that requires certain injury prevention approaches:

The study, published in the online issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine , found that over 40,000 patients were treated in U.S. emergency departments for rock climbing-related injuries between 1990 and 2007.

This is something that should be looked into because if rock climbing continues in it’s growth in popularity, there will likely be a larger number of injuries.

Have you ever gone rock climbing? What do you think of sports that could end up with severe injuries, such as those that can be caused in rock climbing?

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Image courtesy PhotoExpress.com