Citation

Burtscher M, Niedermeier M, Gatterer H. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021; 18(4): e1405.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph18041405

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Recreational outdoor activities like mountain sports are gaining large popularity all over the world and particularly in the Alpine regions. Such activities include sports like downhill or cross-country skiing, ski mountaineering, mountain hiking, rock or ice climbing, high-altitude mountaineering, mountain biking, paragliding, and many more. Although considerable health benefits associated with physical activity, especially when performed on a regular basis, are widely accepted, certain mountain sports also bear an inherent risk of injury due to both objective and subjective risk factors. Thus, knowledge on those risk factors forms an important foundation for the development of appropriate preventive measures in order to reduce accidents and emergencies, and to increase the health benefits of mountain sports.

Therefore, this Special Issue on "Mountain Sports Activities: Injuries and Prevention" was aimed to seek research papers on injuries occurring during various types of recreational mountain sport activities, focusing on risk factors, underlying causes and mechanisms, and outcomes of and/or suggestions for prevention studies. When we made this call for submissions, we did not expect such an active interest in this topic. Finally, 22 articles have been published, covering a broad spectrum of information on the risks of illness, injury, and even mortality associated with mountain sports activities. It is a pleasure to summarize the main messages provided by these papers, but there is also a need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the methodological approaches applied and to derive ideas for future studies potentially contributing to safety of, and health benefits from, being physically active in mountainous regions...

Language: en