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Rock Climbing Injury Medical Survey


Submitted by admin on 2011-03-24

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If you've ever found yourself nursing a chronic climbing injury -- for example, a strained tendon or a pulled shoulder -- you are not alone. These injuries are common, and yet, surprisingly, there is very little data in the medical literature to guide doctors who treat climbers suffering from them.

Alex Folkl, a climber and medical student at the University of Vermont, is hoping to change that. He's developed a short survey that looks at causes and consequences of chronic injury in sport climbers and boulderers. The survey is targeted at climbers who primarily sport climb or boulder, are eighteen years or older, and have had a climbing-related injury for at least a year.

Alex is hoping the results will help climbers to better understand what sorts of chronic injuries they might expect the longer they climb, and what kind of impact those injuries might have on their day-to-day lives. Once results are analyzed, they'll be posted to rockclimbing.com.

Unlike other surveys by external sources asking for information on climbing, Alex himself is a climber, having climbed for nearly 15 years. He was first inspired to take on this research project after having suffered a lower back injury which threatened his ability to climb, in the end the accident put him out of climbing for over a year. In the process of healing he began researching for information on climbing related injuries - How frequent are they? Who gets hurt? What gets hurt? Who recovers and how many of them go on to climb afterwards.

The survey is accessible here, and it will be available for the next two months:

http://edu.surveygizmo.com/...Rock-Climbing-Survey

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3 Comments CommentAdd a Comment

 ClimbSoHigh
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 2011-03-24
Interesting... I hope this is a well organized effort at this. And I am supprised there is not medical data on this as I have heard of doctors (mostly out west) that specialize in rock climbing related injuries, which makes me wonder how a dr could specialize in something with no medical data to look to.

Just thinking out loud, time to take the test :)
 Beaver
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 2011-04-15
Hey,, does climbing with a broken rib count?? did it skiing and gave it like three weeks and am working out in the gym. Have to keep up on training for the good weather, don't want to get outside soft.

entered a lead comp last weekend,, and still placed first in the mens rec class. can't wait till the rock is dry, and free from snow. Squamish here I come!!!
 climber49er
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 2011-05-13
Two months = 5-24-11? Survey appears to be closed already.

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