Impact of participation in sports safety education on sports injuries, sports safety awareness, and sports activity habits among young Korean athletes

Safety education is important for young athletes because it reduces injuries and serves as a stepping stone to becoming a professional athlete. Mandatory safety education and legislation for sports players are being discussed, but no progress has been made thus far. Therefore, this study investigated how young Korean athletes’ participation in sports safety education is related to sports injuries, sports safety awareness, and sports activity habits. We sourced all the data of 3262 professional athletes aged 13 to 18 years from the 2019 Sports Safety Accident Survey. We analyzed the data using SPSS for Windows (version 23.0; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Frequency analysis, chi-square analysis, and multivariate logistic regression were performed. The results revealed that the more athletes participate in safety education, the less likely they are to have sports injuries and the more likely they are to develop safety awareness and beneficial activity habits such as managing accidents. Additionally, those who participate in safety education are more likely to carry enough water to stay hydrated during exercise than those who do not. Overall, the results suggest that safety education should be emphasized for athletes from a young age, as it helps prevent injuries and improve performance. A governance-based safety education system must be established so young athletes can participate in safety education. Furthermore, safety education must be regular and sports-specific.