Ski Sickness in Adolescents Skiers

Objective: There is shortage of knowledge about medical problems in adolescent skiers. This study aimed to determine frequency of medical signs and symptoms during or after ski among adolescents skiers.
Methods: This cross sectional study was performed in 12 consecutive weekends in winter 2005 at Dizin ski resort in Iran. All adolescent skiers (<16years) who had entered the resort during this time period were enrolled in the study. A questionnaire including demographics, duration of transport to the resort, wearing glasses and contact lenses for medical and non medical applications, duration and frequency of skiing and development of signs and symptoms of ski sickness during or after skiing was filled for each participant. In addition, association of mentioned variables with medical problems was investigated.
Findings: Of 162 skiers, 111 subjects (68.5%) were males. The mean age of the participants was 14.7±2.1 years. Of them, 127 skiers wore glasses or lens during skiing. Visual disorders including myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism were found in 24 (14.8%) skiers. Our study showed that the frequency of main ski-related signs and symptoms varies from 0 to 10.5%. There was significant association between occurrence of signs and symptoms and presence of visual disorder (P=0.015).
Conclusion: Our results showed that development of ski-related signs and symptoms is relatively frequent. These signs and symptoms have association with minor ophthalmologic problems such as myopia or astigmatism.