Recreational Skydiving—Really That Dangerous? A Systematic Review

Christiane Barthel, Sacha Halvachizadeh, Jamison G. Gamble, Hans-Christoph Pape and Thomas Rauer ()
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Christiane Barthel: Department of Trauma Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Sacha Halvachizadeh: Department of Trauma Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Jamison G. Gamble: St. George’s University School of Medicine, St. George, Grenada
Hans-Christoph Pape: Department of Trauma Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Thomas Rauer: Department of Trauma Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-11

Abstract: Skydiving have gained mainstream popularity over the past decades. However, limited data exist on the injury risk or type associated with skydiving. This systematic review evaluated the injuries and fatalities of civilian skydivers. A PRISMA-guided literature search was performed in MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase using the following MeSH terms: “skydiving” or “parachute” alone or in combination with “injury” or “trauma” was performed including all studies through June 2022 in both English and German. Additionally, injury reports from the German, American, and British Parachute Associations were reviewed. Of the 277 articles matching the selected search terms, 10 original articles and 34 non-scientific reports from various skydiving associations were included. More than 62 million jumps were evaluated, with an average of 3,200,000 jumps per year, which showed an average injury rate of 0.044% and an average fatality rate of 0.0011%. The most common injuries sustained by recreational skydivers involved the lumbar spine and lower extremities. Injuries were most commonly reported during the landing sequence. With modern equipment and training methods, fatalities occur in less than 1 per 100,000 cases, and serious injuries requiring hospitalization in less than 2 per 10,000 cases. This puts the assessment of skydiving as a high-risk sport into perspective.

Keywords: skydiving; parachute; injuries; fatality; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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