International Advances in Mountain Outdoor Sports Accident Research: A Data-Centric Perspective

As global participation in mountain outdoor sports continues to rise, safety concerns have become increasingly prominent in both academic research and risk management practices. This study systematically reviews 28 SCI/SSCI-indexed articles published between 2005 and 2025 from the Web of Science database, synthesizing worldwide research progress on mountain outdoor sports accidents through a data-driven lens. It outlines the current landscape of accident data sources in international scholarship and employs a four-dimensional analytical framework－encompassing victim profiles, incident circumstances, consequences, and rescue information－to identify prevailing patterns in such accidents. The study concludes with the following recommendations for enhancing risk prevention and control in China’s mountain outdoor sports: standardize accident data collection to establish a data-informed risk management system; implement the “prevention-first” philosophy to establish an education and early warning mechanism focused on “source prevention”; develop a multidimensional risk assessment and classification system to improve rescue response; optimize resource allocation via a tiered rescue framework; and promote applied research on accident causation to strengthen practical risk mitigation.