Benefícios e riscos da natação em águas abertas para a saúde, o bem-estar e o meio ambiente, segundo relatos dos próprios participantes: Evidências transversais de uma pesquisa com nadadores escoceses

David M  Oliver; Craig W  McDougall; Tony  Robertson; Blair  Grant; Nick  Hanley; Richard S  Quilliam; Dharmendra Kumar  Meena

Autores

David M Oliver Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, United Kingdom
Craig W McDougall Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh,United Kingdom / Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Tony Robertson Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, United Kingdom
Blair Grant Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, United Kingdom
Nick Hanley School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Richard S Quilliam Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, United Kingdom
Dharmendra Kumar Meena CIFRI: Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, India

Palavras-chave:

Natação, Águas Abertas, Saúde

Resumo

O contato com ambientes naturais beneficia a saúde humana, proporcionando oportunidades para interações sociais, melhorando o bem-estar mental e disponibilizando espaços ao ar livre para exercícios físicos. A natação em águas abertas tem experimentado um rápido aumento de popularidade, em parte devido aos benefícios para a saúde física que proporciona, mas também ao crescente interesse em (re)conectar-se com a natureza para interações entre meio ambiente e saúde. Realizando uma pesquisa online em escala nacional com 717 nadadores de águas abertas, o objetivo deste estudo foi investigar padrões e tendências nos benefícios e riscos percebidos da natação em águas abertas para a saúde pública e o meio ambiente; e compreender se esses riscos e benefícios percebidos variam entre diferentes tipologias de nadadores e ambientes de águas abertas, ou "espaços azuis". Foram encontradas fortes associações entre o benefício mais importante relatado pelos próprios participantes em relação à natação em águas abertas e tanto a idade quanto a categorização de seu estilo típico de natação. Todos os grupos etários pesquisados, com exceção de um, consideraram os benefícios para o bem-estar mental como o benefício mais importante da natação em águas abertas; enquanto aqueles com mais de 65 anos identificaram os benefícios para o bem-estar físico, em vez do mental, como o resultado mais importante. Os participantes que preferiam nadar em lagos relataram maior preocupação com os possíveis danos ambientais causados pela crescente popularidade da natação em águas abertas, em comparação com aqueles que praticavam natação em rios ou no mar. No entanto, a maioria dos participantes considerou os riscos ambientais da natação em águas abertas como mínimos. Nosso estudo contribui para o crescente corpo de evidências de que a natação em águas abertas é percebida pelos participantes como benéfica para seu bem-estar físico e mental. Uma melhor compreensão dos benefícios e riscos da interação com espaços azuis utilizados para a natação em águas abertas pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento de políticas públicas colaborativas que promovam oportunidades de recreação ao ar livre mais seguras, saudáveis e sustentáveis, associadas a essa atividade cada vez mais popular.

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This article has been adapted and translated into Portuguese by the editors of NADAR! SWIMMING MAGAZINE for republication, in accordance with the journal's submission guidelines. Original version available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10461842/ ORIGINAL AND ADAPTATION LICENSE: Attribution 4.0 International CC BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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