Version 1
: Received: 23 August 2023 / Approved: 24 August 2023 / Online: 24 August 2023 (07:17:51 CEST)
How to cite:
Küpper, T.; Kühn, C.; Schwarz, U.; Schöffl, V.; Heggie, T.; Kühn, J. Safety Management of via Ferrata Climbers in the European Alps-Epidemiology of Injuries and First Aid Knowledge of the Mountaineers. Preprints2023, 2023081706. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202308.1706.v1
Küpper, T.; Kühn, C.; Schwarz, U.; Schöffl, V.; Heggie, T.; Kühn, J. Safety Management of via Ferrata Climbers in the European Alps-Epidemiology of Injuries and First Aid Knowledge of the Mountaineers. Preprints 2023, 2023081706. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202308.1706.v1
Küpper, T.; Kühn, C.; Schwarz, U.; Schöffl, V.; Heggie, T.; Kühn, J. Safety Management of via Ferrata Climbers in the European Alps-Epidemiology of Injuries and First Aid Knowledge of the Mountaineers. Preprints2023, 2023081706. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202308.1706.v1
APA Style
Küpper, T., Kühn, C., Schwarz, U., Schöffl, V., Heggie, T., & Kühn, J. (2023). Safety Management of via Ferrata Climbers in the European Alps-Epidemiology of Injuries and First Aid Knowledge of the Mountaineers. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202308.1706.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Küpper, T., Travis Heggie and Julia Kühn. 2023 "Safety Management of via Ferrata Climbers in the European Alps-Epidemiology of Injuries and First Aid Knowledge of the Mountaineers" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202308.1706.v1
Abstract
Background: The popularity of climbing via ferratas (VF) in the European Alps has increased a lot. We have analysed the pattern of injuries from accidents, which have occurred on VF, and First Aid (FA) knowledge from the persons on such alpine routes. The aim was to create specific FA courses for those who climb VF.
Material and Methods: Incidences and FA knowledge of the alpinists were investigated by a questionnaire. Data included details of the individual’s alpine experience, accidents or any kind of medical emergency they have ever experienced. FA knowledge was evaluated by 18 multiple choice questions with 5 answers each. The questionnaire was based on those of previous studies but was slightly adopted for VF. For this data from rescue operations on VF were used. Finally every participant was asked to judge his FA knowledge by a Likert scale (1 to 5).
Results: The collective consisted of 391 participants (28.4% women) with an average age of 41 years. A significant portion did no regular fitness training and in most cases the last FA training was years ago. Nobody had joined a specific FA course for climbers or mountaineers. The most common causes of emergencies were: weather conditions (19%), stumble (18.6%), falls (13.4%), and weariness and deficiency in concentration (13.4%). FA questions most often answered correctly were cardiac emergencies (49.6%), high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) (43.2%), snow blindness (40.9%), injuries of the head (37.1%) and hemorrhagic shock (35.3%). Those most often wrong were injuries of the back (1.0%), injuries of the thorax (2.8%), frostbite (9.0%), acute mountain sickness (AMS) (4.1%) and strategy of rescue (4.1%). VF climbers show significant less FA knowledge than mountaineers in the Western Alps and trekkers.
Conclusions: Data support the need of a specific FA training for VF climbers. Their FA knowledge does not fit with the demands in the mountains while some other knowledge they have is negligible on VFs (e.g. HACE). This is in accordance with earlier studies in “classic” alpine mountaineering and in trekking.
Keywords
via ferrata; first aid; safety management; first aid training; climbing; accidents
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
