Training in aquatic safety from education (school) to sport (surfing)

Laburpena

The main objectives of this thesis were to identify risk groups and understand their knowledge regarding the most common hazards on beaches, to increase the effectiveness of prevention. Additionally, we aimed to investigate the participation of surfers from Portugal and Spain as bystander rescuers and their knowledge in rescue and resuscitation in order to reduce drowning in both countries. This doctoral thesis was developed around three main investigations that seek to respond to specific objectives. In investigation 1, a descriptive, cross-sectional and quantitative study was carried out in three phases, of a convenience sample of 120 adolescents. (1) application of a questionnaire to identify bath habits, risk perception concerning rip currents and swimming level, (2) evaluation of a fictionalized video for the identification of rip current risk and (3) evaluation of the assimilation of the visualized content one month after the intervention. In investigations 2 and 3, cross-sectional descriptive studies will be carried out through the application of online questionnaires. In the second investigation, the participants were 102 Portuguese surf instructors and in the third investigation, 2048 surfers residing in Portugal and Spain participated. In the first study, more than half of the participants did not know about rip currents or did not identify them in swimming areas. The video achieves the assimilation of concepts related to rip currents and drowning prevention. In the second study, 93.2% of surfing instructors are aware of the importance of prevention habits for teaching but skip some major preventive measures when teaching novice surfers. Additionally, in a drowning event, the instructors who have attended a basic life support course asserted to be more competent than those who never attended a course (p<0.05). Finally, in the third study, 78.5% of the participants had to carry out at least one rescue in their lifetime. A significant association was found between the years of surfing experience, the surfing level and the number of rescues carried out (p<0.05). In addition, the vast majority of the surfers analyzed did not have the essential knowledge about rescue and resuscitation. This doctoral thesis presents evidence that the distribution of materials that capture the attention of adolescents and promote self-identification of risks, such as the audiovisual methodology used, can be a factor that has a relevant weight in reducing the drowning rate in this age group. This doctoral thesis represents the first attempt to analyze the frequency and conditions of occurrence of rescues carried out by surfers exclusively on the beaches of Portugal and Spain. This research also suggests that the role of surfing instructors and common surfers can be vital, permanent and therefore, crucial as an injury and drowning prevention strategy