Swimming Ability Among Kuwaiti Female College Students

Swimming Ability among Kuwaiti Female College Students
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Swimming Ability among Kuwaiti Female College Students
1 Introduction
One of the most common causes of unintentional injury deaths in the world is drowning. Young people fall victim to fatal and non-fatal drowning because of many reasons such as limited/absence of swimming abilities, a lack of supervision around swimming pools, and failure to use lifejackets, among others. However, the ability to swim is considered a great preventative measure against fatal and non-fatal drowning among young people. In fact, the United Nations Global Drowning Prevention Resolution recommends that all adults should learn how to swim. In their study, Brenner and colleagues revealed that the risk of drowning was reduced by 88% among children aged one to four years who had received formal lessons on swimming.
Swimming ability is considered a life-saving skill. It is an aquatic competence that involves a person pushing themselves through water in a process called self-propulsion. Swimming is commonly used in sports competitions as well as a recreational activity. It also has many health benefits such as its effective use in asthma management, therapy, and physical activity. Past studies reveal that swimming improves both respiratory muscle strength and pulmonary function in healthy people. It also enhances cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, and flexibility. Swimming has also been linked to improved mental health. It improves mood and reduces depression. It is also an effective physical activity than walking because it has been associated with better fitness, in comparison. Further, it is more fun and involving to engage in swimming as a physical exercise because swimming is an aquatic exercise while most other exercises are land-based.
There have been some studies investigating the biomechanical, physiological, and anthropometrical predictors of swimming performance among swimming athletes. However, there has only been one study in Kuwait examining the prevalence of swimming ability among college students. This study aims to fill the gap and establish the prevalence of swimming ability among female college students in Kuwait. Once the prevalence of swimming ability among female students has been established, it will become possible to implement targeted interventions that can positively impact public health, and specifically, prevent drowning in Kuwait.
2 Methods
1 Participants
During the 2018-2019 academic year, female students aged 18-25 years were selected randomly from the college of Basic Education at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training. In total, 804 female students were selected to participat...