Severity of mountain accidents in Catalonia over the period 2011 to 2021: An ordinal regression analysis.

Abstract

Mountain accidents have increased over the last decade all around the globe mostly due to a raise of mountain activity practitioners. Outcomes of accidents usually imply evacuation, traumatic injuries or even cardiovascular events. Sex, age, activity, altitude, experience, and equipment adequacy relate to accidents as direct causes or moderators of accident severity. This study focuses on the mountain accidents in Catalonia with descriptive and ordinal regression analysis aiming to characterize a victim vulnerability profile, which remains largely unexplored. The current sample includes 3257 mountain rescue operations from the Catalan Fire Department records between 2011 and 2021. Descriptive analysis showed that the most common profile was being hiker (63 %), climber (11.6 %), mountain biker (10.2 %), man (60.3 %), going in group (84.3 %), occurring in weekends (53.7 %), and suffering traumatic events (61.4 %) or needing technical support (20.4 %). Moreover, the main causes of fatality were falls and cardiovascular issues with the latter showing the higher fatality rate (55.5 %). Ordinal regression analysis explained a modest amount of variance (Nagelkerke R² = 0.12), suggesting that predictors of higher severity were Group, Altitude, Male, Gathering, Mountain Biking and other practices such as Hunting. Recommendation to rescue teams comprise standardizing and potentiate data collection, conducting awareness campaigns targeted mainly to hikers, mountain bikers and elderly men, and to reinforce awareness campaigns and rescue teams during weekends.