Awareness, Knowledge and Attitude towards Perceived Risk of Fall among Mountaineers from Maharashtra: Cross-Sectional Study

Climbing success is best described by trainable factors rather than anthropometric traits. Perceived risk of fall is considered as one such trainable factor and falls are considered risk factors for injuries and dissatisfactory result in the sport. The purpose of this study is to understand the awareness, knowledge and attitude of mountaineers towards perceived risk of fall in the sport that may enhance physiotherapy interventions. Participants in this study are mountaineers from Maharashtra with minimum 1 year experience of mountaineering on Indian Terrain, Minimum participation of 2 times per year, Age group of 15-50 years. A self-made questionnaire (validated by experts) was used for the survey based, cross-sectional study with snowball sampling of 63 candidates in mountaineering academics. Consent was taken from the athletes. Data was collected and analyzed. Out of the total 63 participants, 82.5% claimed that they are aware that there exists a high risk of fall in the sport, but individuals who have the actual knowledge of perceived risk of fall in Mountaineering was 35.5%. Only 39.7% of the participants had knowledge about the pre-training programs to reduce risk of fall, while 38.1% are practicing a positive attitude towards reducing the perceived risk of fall in mountaineering.