The Effect of a Safety Video on Ski and Snowboard School Program Participants in Calgary, Alberta

The main objective of the study is to investigate if a video intervention can help increase knowledge, decrease risky behaviours on the hill, and reduce injury risk in students who participate in ski and snowboard school programs. The study design is a cluster randomized controlled trial where participating schools will be randomized into either an intervention or control group. The intervention video will contain an injury prevention and safety promotion component for skiing or snowboarding. The control group will receive the standard orientation video that many schools typically provide for students prior to their ski/snowboard outings in previous years.

Skiing and snowboarding are two popular winter activities, and school sanctioned ski and snowboard programs hosted at local ski areas provide students the opportunity to discover and engage in new activities that can benefit their physical and mental well-being. However, these winter sports can be associated with a high risk of injury. Previous studies have found that the majority of injuries in snow sports are preventable and tend to be caused by poor decisions, actions and human error. As part of ski and snowboard school programs at WinSport's Canada Olympic Park (COP) in Calgary, Alberta, children receive an introduction to the sport including basic safety information. However, there is no consistent and comprehensive injury prevention component built into ski and snowboard school outing programs. For this research, the investigative team will implement and evaluate a video intervention with built-in injury prevention and safety promotion messages.

The study design is a cluster randomized controlled trial where participating schools will be randomized into either an intervention or control group. The intervention video is approximately 10 minutes in length and will include information on proper preparation, correct protective equipment use, and strategies for speed control and collision avoidance while skiing or snowboarding. The content and format of the intervention video was developed and informed by focus groups with parents, students, ski patrollers, and ski instructors to ensure optimal information uptake for viewers.The control group will receive the standard orientation video that many schools usually provide for students prior to their ski/snowboard outings.

The participants will be children between the ages of 6 to 15 years (grades 1 to 9) who participate in the ski and snowboard school programs at COP in Calgary, Alberta. The outcomes of interest that will be measured include knowledge uptake (through the use of pre- and post-test questionnaires delivered before and after watching the assigned video, and measuring differences in test scores before and after watching the video), behavioural changes (through the use of multiple observers who will collect data on unsafe behaviours and actions observed on the ski hill during two hour time intervals) and injury risk (through the use of nationally standardized ski patrol accident report forms that will be provided by the ski area and school program enrollment data to calculate injury rates).

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Elementary and junior high school students (grades 1 to 9)
* Attends a school participating in a ski and snowboard school program hosted by a local ski area

Exclusion Criteria:

* High school students (grade 10 or above)