FED: Overconfidence a factor in high male drowning rate
By Danny Rose, Medical Writer08 Apr 2009 12:01 AM
Subject: FED: Overconfidence a factor in high male drowning rate FED: Overconfidence a factor in high male drowning rate EDS: Embargoed to 0001 AEST, Wednesday, April 8
SYDNEY, April 8 AAP - Men often hold inflated views about their abilities in the surf, which could explain why they account for most deaths at Australian beaches.
Researchers have quizzed more than 400 adults across Victorian beaches and found they were often overconfident, and were more likely to swim alone, for longer periods and in deeper water.
Almost 40 per cent of the men surveyed also admitted to drinking alcohol within two hours of going for a swim in the previous 12 months, compared to less than 20 per cent of women.
"Males were more likely to travel to the beach themselves, compared to females, which of course means they would be swimming alone," said PhD student Damian Morgan, of Monash University's Accident Research Centre.
"Males also planned to swim for a longer time than females, in deeper water, and when you compare women surf swimmers and male surf swimmers ... the males were much more confident than the females yet the females tend to be more experienced."
Mr Morgan, who carried out the research, found that men generally felt more confident of being able to return to shore if they got caught up in a rip.
"It leads you to think that overconfidence is leading to the high rate of drownings in young males at surf beaches," he said.
>From July 2001 to June 2005, 129 people drowned at Australian surf beaches and just 18 of them were women, according to an earlier study by Mr Morgan.
He said that while a major driver of this over-representation was simply that more men swim at the beach than women, behavioural factors also play a role.
Future beach safety campaigns could target these behaviours, he said.
The findings are published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
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FED: Overconfidence a factor in high male drowning rate