And, in the abstract of the paper published online by the university's Christchurch department of public health and general practice, Richard Vipond also says "helmets would not be effective in saving lives or preventing serious injury".
Last September, Christchurch coroner Richard McElrea recommended skiers and snowboarders wear helmets but said making them mandatory would be difficult to enforce.
Mr McElrea was considering the deaths of three people in separate accidents on Mt Hutt skifield in 2010.
One was wearing a helmet, which came off, and two were not wearing helmets.
He considered that a "significant percentage" of skiers and snowboarders not wearing helmets was a "matter of major concern".
However, while the parents of one of the victims pressed for the mandatory wearing of helmets, Mr McElrea considered this would be difficult to enforce.
In the United States, and some parts of Austria, helmets must be worn by young people on skifields.
In emails to the Otago Daily Times , Mr Vipond said his research was still in progress and he did not want to be associated with any suggestion helmets were a "waste of time".
"The paper does not suggest that people should not wear helmets - just that making them mandatory should not be a government priority, given the fact that most head injuries in New Zealand are related to alcohol, which could be a more appropriate focus for government intervention."
Mr Vipond found a lack of published research on helmets and "a paucity" of New Zealand data. His results showed helmets decreased the risk of head injury by 35% but that the majority of the injuries prevented were minor cuts and grazes.
"Anthropomorphic device testing demonstrated that helmets are severely limited in their ability to prevent head injuries, even at average speeds, or in children.
"Helmets also seem to provide little benefit in preventing serious injury or death, reflected by steady numbers of each per year in the USA, despite helmet-use nearly tripling over the last eight years.
"Fifty percent of fatally wounded skiers/boarders in the USA in 2010 were wearing a helmet."
Mr Vipond said young men were the most likely to be injured on a skifield, and snowboarding was more likely to result in a head injury than was skiing.
Head injuries made up 10% of skifield injuries in the South Island.
The majority were minor and Mr Vipond said 42% of people with a head injury from a skifield in 2010 were wearing a helmet when they had their accident.
Mr Vipond considered skifield head injuries were not common enough to demand government intervention and suggested programmes to encourage the 40% of people who did not wear helmets to adopt their use.
"While a helmet might not save your life, wearing one is a lot more clever than not wearing one."
