The accidentology of sport in France through the prism of the legitimacy theory: A first multilevel quantitative approach

In many so-called developed countries, participation to at least one physical activity or sport is a mass phenomenon. More, the combination of a high involvement rate and omnivorousness/voraciousness results in a very high volume of practice and lead to a significant volume of accidents. Academic studies have shown the importance of socio-demographic characteristics, such as age and sex, the mode of practice and the physical activity or sport itself in the occurrence of accidents. However, it is also necessary to take into account certain cultural dimensions of investment in sport, and more particularly the legitimate definition of risk specific to each activity. Since commitment and risk-taking are characteristic of young men, we tested the hypothesis that there are more accidents in physical activity or sports in which young men are statistically over-represented. This study evaluated this hypothesis using a sample of 29,000 reported physical activity or sports for a sample of 7,424 practitioners (national survey of the Ministry of Sports in France, people aged 15 and over). We used a multilevel cross classified logistic regression. The results show first a strong effect of the variable concerning the overrepresentation of young men in a physical activity or sport. Secondary, other results are more usual with the effect of modes of practice involved (high frequency, club and competition) and of the physical activity or sport itself (example of alpine skiing) and a single sociodemographic characteristic (the under 30 yo). Conversely, some results are more original, showing the non-effect of sex taken independently. These results provide essential information for taking into account the cultural dimension in sport-related prevention and for the management of the teams responsible for administering it.