Diving injuries among DAN members '10-'11. Some interesting tidbits.+

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DocVikingo

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"Diving-related injury and self-reported DCS symptom rates decreased for higher diver certification levels, increasing age, increasing number of average annual dives and for men; they increased for increasing BMI." I like to increasing age finding. Are us disease/disorder prone geezers wiser, more skilled, more consevative divers? As for BMI, fat is as fat does.


“Diving Hyperb Med. 2014 Jun;44(2):79-85.

Scuba diving injuries among Divers Alert Network members 2010-2011.

Ranapurwala SI1, Bird N2, Vaithiyanathan P3, Denoble PJ3.

Author information 1Divers Alert Network, Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, Divers Alert Network, 6 West Colony Place, Durham, NC 27705, USA, E-mail: shabbarkaid@gmail.com.2Duke Urgent Care, Duke University Health System, Durham, NC, USA.3Divers Alert Network, Durham, NC, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Scuba diving injuries vary greatly in severity and prognosis. While decompression sickness (DCS) and arterial gas embolism can be tracked easily, other forms of diving injury remain unaccounted for.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to assess rates of overall self-reported scuba-diving-related injuries, self-reported DCS-like symptoms, and treated DCS and their association with diver certification level, diving experience and demographic factors.

METHODS: We analyzed self-reported data from a Divers Alert Network membership health survey conducted during the summer of 2011. Poisson regression models with scaled deviance were used to model the relative rates of reported injuries. Models were adjusted for sex, age, body mass index (BMI) and average annual dives, based on the bias-variance tradeoff.

RESULTS: The overall rate of diving-related injury was 3.02 per 100 dives, self-reported DCS symptoms was 1.55 per 1,000 dives and treated DCS was 5.72 per 100,000 dives. Diving-related injury and self-reported DCS symptom rates decreased for higher diver certification levels, increasing age, increasing number of average annual dives and for men; they increased for increasing BMI.

CONCLUSIONS: Diving injury rates may be higher than previously thought, indicating a greater burden on the diving community. Self-reported DCS-like symptoms are a small fraction of all dive-related injuries and those receiving treatment for DCS are an even smaller fraction. The small number of divers seeking treatment may suggest the mild nature and a tendency towards natural resolution for most injuries.”

Cheers,

DocV
 
I like to think that I'm getting wiser with the grey...a little less inclined to stretch the boundaries of dive physics.
 
The 3% jumped at me. But, I think that includes all diving related injuries. If we broaden the definition of 'dive injury' to add in people dropping a scuba tank on their foot, disbaric ear problems or banging their head on an entry, maybe it could go that high. It will be interesting to learn more.
 
I would be willing to bet that a good many of those were ear problems.
 
I would be willing to bet that a good many of those were ear problems.

As that is the most common dive injury, I much suspect that you are correct.

Cheers,

Doc
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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