Cold water immersion in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic-motivating factors

Abstract

The goal was an attempt to investigate what factors motivate people to take the decision to winter swim during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether there are correlations between the examined predictors Materials and methods: In the research, a questionnaire was used to examine the opinions on cold water immersion (advantages and disadvantages) of people who practice this activity. The research was conducted at the turn of March 2020 and March 2021 on 937 respondents from Poland who practice this sport. Statistical analysis was based on the χ2 test of independence of two qualitative variables. It was examined whether independent variables such as gender, age category and place of residence influence the frequency of winter swimming. Logistic regression was performed to test the influence of various factors on the individuals who winter swim. The influence of individual predictors on the dependent variable and categories of chance and probability of occurrence were assessed. Results: In the present study, gender and age category affect the frequency of winter swimming. The place of residence has no influence on this activity. Women more frequently than men practice this due to: improvement of skin appearance (49.43% of women and 23.86% of men), diseases (12.64% of women and 7.87% of men) aesthetics (10.92% of women and 1.78% of men). Men more often than women winter swim because of: better regeneration of the organism (42.53% of women and 53.30% of men), improvement of the efficiency of the cardiovascular system (25.29% of women and 35.53% of men) and better physical fitness (21.07% of women and 33.76% of men). Conclusions: The majority of people with higher education in the Polish population practice cold water immersion. Men more often take up this activity than women. The age range is larger in the group of men who winter swim than in the group of women. The older the respondents are, the more frequently they practice cold water immersion. The factors which motivated people to take up cold water immersion included: improvement of mood and general health improvement. Most of the respondents who undertook this type of recreation suffered from hypertension or hypothyroidism and had injuries. Respondents mentioned frostbite as a side effect of cold water immersion.