Proper safety equipment is a vital part of sports such as skateboarding and inline skating. Knee and elbow pads help prevent painful or disabling injury. Despite this, not everyone uses proper protective equipment. For instance, a study in the "New England Journal of Medicine" reported that fewer than half of inline skaters wore knee or elbow pads. Failure to wear proper safety equipment can lead to a wide range of injures.
Grazes and Cuts
Sports such as skateboarding and inline skating are often practiced outdoors, where irregular surfaces and loose objects can present trip hazards, even without attempting to do jumps or tricks. During a fall, a skater is likely to strike the elbow, knee, head or hand first, often leading to grazes or cuts against rough surfaces. While some consider these injuries minor, they can be painful. The protective fabric and plastic of proper knee or elbow pads protect against this type of injury.
Contusions, Sprains and Fractures
Knee and elbow pads not only protect the skin but absorb shock during falls. This protection is vital for athletes such as volleyball players, who may find themselves diving on a hard surface during play. This type of injury can lead to long-term injuries such as sprains and fractures. A study of protective equipment use among high school athletes published in the "American Journal of Epidemiology" discovered that wearing knee protection was associated with a significant reduction in severe injury to the knees.
Other Types of Protection
In addition to helmets, elbow pads and knee pads, some athletes wear wrist guards to protect the wrist from hyperextension and other forms of injury. Wrist injuries are a common type of sports injury. The "New England Journal of Medicine" reported that wrist protection significantly reduced injuries to the wrist but that many athletes felt that they were unable to wear wrist protection because the guards interfered with the movement of their wrists, limiting their performance.
Chronic Injuries
Outside the world of sports, knee protection has an equally important role in the workplace. Carpet fitting is only one of a number of trades in which the worker is likely to spend a significant amount of time on his or her knees. Extended periods of kneeling, particularly on hard surfaces, can lead to conditions such as bursitis, in which fluid sacs in the knee become inflamed, or damage to the cartilage of the knee. Proper kneepads help prevent these injuries.
References
- "American Journal of Epidemiology"; Use of Discretionary Protective Equipment and Rate of Lower Extremity Injury in High School Athletes; Jingzhen Yang et al.; 2005
- "New England Journal of Medicine"; Risk Factors for Injuries from In-Line Skating and the Effectiveness of Safety Gear; Richard A. Schieber et al., November 1996
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Preventing Knee Injuries and Disorders in Carpet Layers; May 1990
