Gerhard Ruedl

University of Innsbruck | UIBK · Department of Sport Science

The health status (HS) of children is influenced by a variety of factors, including physical fitness (PF) or social and environmental characteristics. We present a 4-year longitudinal study carried out with 263 primary school children. PF was assessed yearly using the German Motor Performance Test 6-18. Demographic data, leisure time behavior and s...

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) consensus statement on ‘methods for recording and reporting of epidemiological data on injury and illness in sport’ recommended standardising methods to advance data collection and reporting consistency. However, additional aspects need to be considered when these methods are applied to specific sports se...

Hand-grip strength was evaluated in 757 recreational downhill skiers and compared to 1021 community-dwellers. Findings are reported for age and sex categories consistent with community-dwelling norms. Effect size (Cohen's d) was calculated to estimate the clinical relevance of strength differences between populations. Most male and half of the fema...

Introduction & Purpose Health behavior offers a pivotal domain of health for managing current global crises, including physical inactivity and overweight/obesity (Schroeder, 2007). However, adults have limited capacity for adopting healthy behavior into their lifestyle (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997). Schools offer an ideal setting for implementing hea...

Introduction & Purpose Based on consensus on the tremendous health benefits through physical activity (PA) & exercise at all ages, it is a sound recommendation for health promotion, maintaining good health and the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) incl. risk factors. However, since health is a complex state that has to be earned over a...

Introduction & Purpose In Austria, 99% of fatally injured (Pocecco et al., 2022) and 81% of accidented mountain-bikers (Woyke et al., 2024) are males. However, these evident sex/gender differences in prevalence do not allow any conclusions to be drawn either about the risk of injury or about potential risk factors between the sex/genders. Thus, the...

Introduction & Purpose Skiing, both on slopes and in backcountry terrain, is highly popular in Austria. However, this sport carries inherent risks of injuries considering numerous accidents occurring each year both on designated ski slopes and off-piste areas. During the 2021/22 winter season, the Austrian alpine police reported 4,613 ski-related i...

Introduction The 19th Congress of the Austrian Sport Science Society (“Österreichische Sportwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, ÖSG”), held in Innsbruck, Austria, centered on the theme of” Embracing Interdisciplinarity in Sport Science.” The idea of interdisciplinarity in sport science has been discussed for over three decades and stems from its positi...

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) states that quality physical education (QPE) is essential for promoting health in youth, and that teachers have a prominent role towards achieving it (UNESCO, 2015). Previous research linked PE teachers’ hard and soft skills with their students’ in-class motivation. Teach...

Various socio-demographic, environmental, and lifestyle-related factors have been reported to be associated with physical activity (PA) habits. However, there exist insufficient data comparing different forms of engagement in PA, sports, and exercise. This study aimed to investigate potential factors associated with the engagement in leisure-time P...

Despite the well-documented detrimental health effects of prolonged engagement in sedentary behaviors, children and adolescents spent a large amount of time with seated activities. The present study examined the association between participation in club sports and various sedentary behaviors during weekdays and the weekend in youth between 11 and 1...

INTRODUCTION: Health behavior serves as a momentous domain for managing current crises (physical activity [PA] levels; obesity) preeminent in young people and affecting the global population well in excess [1]. In schools, the current behavioral constraints of pupils during compulsory lessons, such as prolonged sitting time, prevent reaching the lo...

As part of the multidisciplinary cross-sectional study "From Science 2 School", the lifestyle behaviour of Austrian secondary school pupils, teachers and school principals was surveyed using a large sample with the help of an online questionnaire. For the first time the frequencies and distribution of various dietary patterns were linked with physi...

Im Rahmen der multidisziplinären Querschnittstudie „From Science 2 School“ wurde das Lebensstilverhalten österreichischer Schüler*innen und Lehrer*innen/Schulleiter*innen anhand einer großen Stichprobe mithilfe eines Online-Fragebogens erhoben und dabei erstmals die Häufigkeitsverteilung verschiedener Ernährungsformen verknüpft mit Bewegung und Spo...

The detrimental effects of high amounts of sedentary time on various health outcomes have been well documented. Particularly among youth, there are many sedentary pursuits that compete with active leisure time choices, which contribute to a high prevalence of insufficiently active children and adolescents. Therefore, the present study examined the...

Aktuelle Studien belegen, dass sitzendes Verhalten als Risikofaktor für die Entstehung vieler chronischer Krankheiten gilt. Der vorliegende Artikel beschreibt die durchschnittlichen Sitz- und Bewegungszeiten von Hochschulstudierenden an Wochentagen und Wochenenden. Dazu wurden 757 Studierende von drei Tiroler Hochschulen (Universität, Pädagogische...

Objective Since there is no scientifically validated German version of the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-3), the aim of this study was to assess its psychometric parameters and invariance across sex in a sample of German-speaking young adults. The BREQ-3 is an instrument measuring the social and internal influences of motiva...

Background Hiking is one of the most popular leisure sport activities practiced in the Alps during the summer season, but bears the risk of mountain emergencies, accidents, and fatalities. This paper provides an updated analysis of hiking accidents for the years 2015 to 2021 in the Austrian Alps, thereby outlining fatal and non-fatal accident chara...

The importance of a ski helmet for alpine sports

A large proportion of children and adolescents spend their leisure time with predominantly sedentary pursuits and do not reach the WHO physical activity recommendations. As there remains limited research on specific sedentary behaviors in Austrian children and adolescents, we investigated time spent sitting and the utilization of various media duri...

In recreational alpine skiing, an ACL injury represents the most common injury. Skiing is a complex activity where the skier interacts with the environment, such as weather, snow conditions, temperature, etc. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the potential impact of environmental factors on ACL injury risk in recreational alpine skiers. A...

Background There is a strong association between lifestyle behavior and health status. While young adulthood is a critical period for adopting and stabilizing lifelong healthy behavior, university life is independently associated with psychological stressors that may further affect health and well-being. Objective The present multidisciplinary stu...

Background The association between lifestyle and health status highlights the importance of assessing health-related behavior in different populations. This multidisciplinary study aimed to examine the health behavior of academic staff of Austrian colleges and universities, with a specific focus on diet types (vegan, vegetarian, omnivorous) and phy...

Background In recreational alpine skiing ACL injury risk depends on the interaction of individual characteristics and behaviours as well as on equipment-related factors. Aim to evaluate if and to what extent personal characteristics and equipment-related parameters are associated with ACL injury risk in cautious and risk-taking recreational alpine...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions/lockdowns have influenced the health and lifestyle behaviour of university students and staff, particularly their physical activity (PA) habits. However, the association between the direction of PA changes and sociodemographic characteristics has not been studied. This nationwide study was condu...

INTRODUCTION: Ski geometry parameters can influence ACL injury risk in recreational alpine skiing, e.g., the likelihood of an ACL injury increases with a wider ski tip and decreases with a wider ski waist (Ruedl et al. 2022). This study aims to evaluate the impact of ratios between tip, waist and tail widths of the carving ski on ACL injury risk in...

Dieser Beitrag stellt die Ergebnisse einer Studie zum Zusammenhang zwischen körperlicher Aktivität bzw. der körperlichen Fitness und dem psychischen Wohlbefinden bei 255 Tiroler Jugendlichen der Sekundarstufe II während der 3. und 4. Welle der Covid-19 Pandemie dar. Mittels eines Fragebogens wurde die wöchentliche körperliche Aktivität erhoben und...

Background In recreational alpine skiing, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is affected in approximately 50% of serious knee injuries. There are established sex-based and skill-based differences in ACL injury risk, but the potential impact of equipment used (eg, skis, bindings, and boots) has not been evaluated. Purpose To evaluate individual a...

Physical Education (PE) teachers’ professional and personal skills may not only affect the quality of the teaching-learning processes in PE, but also individuals’ future active/inactive behaviors. The aim of this study is to examine the structure of a pool of items developed for measuring individuals’ perception of such skills in PE teachers. Explo...

This study investigated the effect of a new type of ear pads for ski helmets on the hearing performance of 13 young adults (mean age: 22 years). Free-field hearing thresholds and sound localization performance of the subjects were assessed in three conditions: without helmet, with a conventional helmet and with the modified helmet. Results showed t...

Healthy lifestyle is the major indicator of individual and public health especially in target populations (e.g., during emerging adulthood). Evidence indicates that unhealthy lifestyle behaviors are strongly associated with the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases. The dual approach of sustainable health (i.e., physical exercise tied to a heal...

Introduction. Intrinsic motivation is essential for establishing life-long positive behaviors. In Physical Education (PE), this variable may have a significant impact on students’ choice of adhering to an active lifestyle both in the short and long term. Many tools have been developed for the assessment of intrinsic motivation, among which the Intr...

The most common causes of death in Western countries today are preventable diseases mainly attributed to daily behavior. It has been well documented that genetics are influential but not the deciding factor for developing non-communicable diseases. Ideally, the public should be educated to perform methods of optimal health and wellbeing independent...

The increasing prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle choices contribute to almost all chronic conditions negatively affecting individual and public health. As the most beneficial preventative solution, a healthy lifestyle focusing on the dual approach of physical activity (PA) and a healthful diet is highly recommended. Considering the growing number o...

Despite the well documented benefits of physical fitness (PF) on general health, its role in back pain (BP) is still unclear. The objective of this study was to assess the association between different PF profiles and BP in a sample of adolescents. The study assessed PF and BP in a sample of 919 youth (age = 15.5 ± 1.3 years) from North and South T...

Despite recreational mountain-biking’s growing popularity worldwide, the literature on mortality in this leisure sporting activity is scarce. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics of fatal accidents as well as resulting dead victims during recreational mountain-biking in the Austrian Alps over the past 16 ye...

Aim: to evaluate if ACL injuries are associated with recreational skiers using rented skis and whether individual factors, ski geometry parameters and standing heights differ between skiers who rented or owned skis. A retrospective questionnaire-based, case-control study of ACL-injured and uninjured recreational skiers was conducted during six win...

Mountain sports are continuously gaining popularity, currently fueled by the post-pandemic period expanding travel opportunities and the desire to escape the increasingly hot environmental conditions of urban areas—ambient temperature decreases by about 6.5 °C per 1000 m gain in altitude. [...]

Fatalities on ski slopes are very rare, with about one death per one million skier days. Whether the fatality rate is affected by substantial changes in the number of skier days and potentially associated alterations in the structure of the skier population is unknown. Thus, we compared the fatality rate on Austrian ski slopes in the winter season...

Health is an essential part of any individual, and gains particular importance in youth, as a good health at this age is more likely to reduce health risks both in the short and long term. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of physical and contextual parameters on youths’ perceived health. A total of 919 adolescents completed questionna...

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of ski geometry data and standing height ratio on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk of male and female recreational skiers. Methods: A retrospective questionnaire-based, case-control study of ACL-injured and uninjured recreational skiers was conducted during six consecutive winter seasons. Ski geomet...

Physical fitness and body weight are key correlates of health. Nevertheless, an increasing number of children display poor physical fitness and high body weight. The aim of this study was to examine the prospective association of physical fitness with body weight throughout the elementary school years with a special emphasis on children with high b...

Lifestyle behaviors are key contributors to sustainable health and well-being over the lifespan. The analysis of health-related behaviors is crucial for understanding the state of health in different populations, especially teachers who play a critical role in establishing the lifelong health behaviors of their pupils. This multidisciplinary, natio...

Physical fitness (PF) shows favourable associations with several health indicators in children. Children's PF depends on a variety of non-modifiable (e.g., sex and age) and modifiable factors (e.g., weight status and sports participation). The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of modifiable and non-modifiable factors on the development o...

Poor lifestyle choices in adolescents, including low physical activity (PA), excess screen time, and unhealthy dietary habits, are major threats to their health in the future. Unhealthy behaviors such as insufficient PA, high TV time, and poor dietary choices also tend to cluster, but information on the combined association of screen time, sports p...

When interpreting sex differences in the injury risk during sport activities, potential gender effects are often overlooked. This might actually be the case with regard to the higher injury risk of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in female skiers. A higher failure rate of ski binding releases has been suggested at least partly to explain the m...

Purpose It is not known so far if ski-equipment-related factors differ between the ACL injury mechanisms, potentially influencing the circumstances and causes of falling, finally resulting in ACL injury. More specifically focusing on the injury mechanisms will provide a deeper understanding of injury causation. The aim of the study was to evaluate...

Background: Studying the relationship between subjectively and objectively measured physical activity (PA) can provide viable information on youths’ behaviors. However, the restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced children’s possibilities to be active, may negatively affect it. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship betwee...

Attaining healthy behaviors is essential at any life stage, particularly childhood, due to the strong link between children’s lifestyle and the subsequent adult state of health. This multidisciplinary study aimed to assess lifestyle behaviors of Austrian pupils of secondary schools I and II, with a specific focus on PA habits and diet types based o...

Background In recreational skiing, an ACL injury is one of the most common diagnosis. Objective To compare equipment-related risk factors between ACL injured and uninjured skiers. Design Case-Control study over the 3 winter seasons 2016/17–2018/19 in one major Austrian ski resort. Participants 248 ACL injured (52% females) and 1054 uninjured ski...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of individual, equipment-related and environmental factors associated with falls among adult recreational skiers. Individual, equipment-related (ski geometry data) and environmental data were collected by questionnaire among uninjured skiers with and without reported falls during the skiing day. Ski...

Low physical fitness (PF) has been associated with higher risk of suffering from different diseases. The importance of PF is evident already in early ages, as children’s PF appears to be a key factor of their future PF and physical activity level. Among the variables that may have an influence on children’s PF, the importance of parent’s socioecono...

The COVID-19 pandemic has led in many countries to the implementation of policies that mandate social distancing and movement restrictions. While these measures are warranted in order to minimize the spread of the virus they may have detrimental effects on various behaviors, including physical activity (PA). The present study examined PA and sittin...

Background: The implementation of various policies aiming to contain the COVID-19 pandemic has led in many countries to lockdowns that potentially affect various behaviors, including physical activity (PA). Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the PA and exercise levels in exercise science students during and after the first COVID-19 lockdown...

Objectives The study investigated a potential correlation between owning a superregional low-cost ski and leisure card, namely the Leisure Card Tirol (LCT), and perceived quality of life (QOL). Design A cross-sectional, quantitative approach (online questionnaire) was chosen. Methods In total, 1,588 LCT users as well as 684 non-users (residents l...

This article presents epidemiological data on traumatic accidents during mountain hiking in the summer season and recreational alpine skiing in the Austrian Alps. In mountain hiking, the absolute number of fatalities remained stable from 2006-2014 (32 to 46 victims per year), whereas the number of non-fatal accidents increased by about 5% per year...

The inverse association between body weight and physical fitness has been well documented but there remains limited information on the association of weight change with the development of physical fitness, particularly in elementary school children. The present study, therefore, examined the association between change in weight status and the devel...

Zusammenfassung: Die frühe Schulzeit (6. bis 10. Lebensjahr) sowie der Übergang von der Kind-heit zur Jugend (Pubertät) stellen für die motorische Entwicklung einen außerordentlich wichtigen Lebensabschnitt dar. Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte die Entwicklung der motorischen Fähig-keiten von der ersten bis zur elften Schulstufe bei männlichen un...

PurposeThe knee joint still represents the most frequent anatomical injury location accounting for about one-third of all injuries in recreational alpine skiers. However, comprehensive information on current knee injury patterns in this populations is sparse.Methods During the winter seasons 2016/17 and 2019/20, this retrospective questionnaire-bas...

The study evaluated incidences and potential differences of traumatic and nontraumatic fatalities among recreational skiers and snowboarders on Austrian ski slopes within a 10-year analysis. Within this retrospective study, data were collected by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Data comprised all traumatic and nontraumatic deaths on Austrian...

The study evaluated characteristics of non-fatal mountain hiking accidents caused by falls. Questionnaires were sent to mountain hikers who suffered a fall-related accident in Tyrol (Austria) during a 3-year period. The questionnaire included details of socio-demographic data, physical activity, medication intake, defective vision, breaks, fluid in...

Annually, millions of people engage in mountain sports activities all over the world. These activities are associated with health benefits, but concurrently with a risk for injury and death. Knowledge on death rates is considered important for the categorization of high-risk sports in literature and for the development of effective preventive measu...