Roller sports

Roller sports include skateboarding, rollerblading, and non-motored scooters.

An estimated 183,000 Australians aged 15 and over participated in roller sports in 2019–20.  There were about 3,720 injury hospitalisations attributed to roller sports—2,590 male and 1,130 female. This is 800 more than the year before. For those aged 15 and over, the rate of hospitalisation was about 1,230 per 100,000 participants.

The highest number of hospitalisations was in the 10–14 age group (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Age distribution of injury hospitalisations from roller sports, 2019–20

Column graph showing the age distribution of injury hospitalisations.

Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A14.

About 7 in 10 of these hospitalisations (71%) were fractures (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Injury hospitalisations from roller sports, by type of injury as a proportion, 2019–20

Bar graph showing the proportion of injury hospitalisations by main type of injury.

Note: Type of injury is derived from the principal diagnosis.
Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A25.

There were 167 hospitalisations for concussion—137 male and 30 female.

The main site of injury was most often the shoulder and arm region (44%), followed by the hip and leg region (23%) (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Injury hospitalisations from roller sports, by body part injured, as a proportion, 2019–20

Outline of a person with body regions labelled, marked with the percentage of hospitalised injuries for each region.

Note: Body part injured is derived from the principal diagnosis.
Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A26.

When specified, the cause of 9 out of 10 of these injuries (90%) was a fall (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Cause of injury as a proportion when specified, injury hospitalisations from roller sports, 2019–20

Bar graph showing the proportion of hospitalisations by cause of injury when specified.

Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A27.

Seasonality and COVID-19

The pattern of injury hospitalisations in 2019–20 was different to the two previous years. There were larger peaks in October and January than before, which suggests additional activity coinciding with school holiday periods. The increase from March 2020 compared with the previous years may have been caused by COVID-19 lockdowns, or a new mode of roller sport, or some combination of these (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Injury hospitalisations from roller sports by month of admission, 2017–18 to 2019–20

Line graph with 3 lines for 3 financial years of hospitalisations by month of admission, illustrating the 3 peaks in 2019–20, including after one beginning after April of 2020.

Notes
1. Months have been standardised to 31 days.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.  

For more detail, see data table B3.