Investigators
- Ms Catherine Hill, Research staff
- Dr Terri Pikora and Dr Rebecca Braham, Chief Investigators
- Res/Asst/Professor Christina Mills and Ms Lauren Nimmo (Royal Life Saving WA), Associate Investigators
Recreational water activities have experienced growth in popularity in recent years, resulting in the number of participants also rapidly increasing.
There is limited research related to exposure, injuries, risk and protective behaviours among three popular water activities:
- Personal Watercraft or PWC riding,
- kite surfing, and
- towed water activities.
This study explores personal, behavioural, physical environmental and socio cultural environmental factors that may be associated with these activities through a web-based survey. Participants are being recruited within the Perth metropolitan and Peel regions.
Aim
The overall aim of the proposed pilot study is to identify the magnitude of injury among popular recreational water activities in Western Australia.
Objectives
The specific objectives of the study are:
- To identify, describe and compare injuries among PWC riders, kite surfers and towed water activities aged 17 years and over
- To explore and describe the risks and protective factors, including safety and training practices, among PWC riders, kite surfers and towed water activities in WA
- To determine the feasibility of collecting data using a web-based survey from recreational water users
To the best of our knowledge, this will be the first study to encompass all these measures across three water activities. The findings will assist in identifying potential strategies to improve safety behaviour among recreational water users and will assist in developing interventions to reduce risk of injury.
This study is being conducted in collaboration with researchers at the UWA School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health.
Funding for this study was received from Healthway with support from Marine Safety at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure.
School of Population Health
University information
CRICOS Code: 00126G
