Determining the Status of Sports Insurance Compensation Payment to Injured ‎Athletes

Due to the unfavorable condition of sport infrastructure in Iran, including locations, equipment, ýfacilities, and accessories, athletes and coaches are at an increased risk of accidents and ýinjuries. One of the main tools for protecting athletes in case of accidents is insurance. The ýobjective of this study was to determine the status of sports insurance from the perspective of ýinjured athletes and sports administrators in Chaharmahal Va Bakhtiyari Province, Iran.
This applied and descriptive study was conducted through field surveys in 2014. The study ýpopulation consisted of injured sport administrators and athletes in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari ýProvince (64 managers and 278 athletes). From among them, 103 athletes and 42 officials were ýselected through convenience sampling. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made ýquestionnaire consisting of two parts; one part related to the success rate of insurance plans ýand the other on problems and obstacles to a successful insurance coverage. The validity of the ýquestionnaire was confirmed by sports management professionals, sports medicine experts, ýand insurance management experts. Its reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha which ýwas equal to 0.84. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive and inferential statistics.
From the managers’ perspective, the Federation of Sports’ Medicine has not shown a ýsignificantly favorable performance in regards to mandatory sports’ insurance. Moreover, from ýthe athletes’ perspective, the Federation of Sports’ Medicine has only been significantly ýsuccessful in the prevention dimension (P Based on the findings of this study, the Federation of Sports’ Medicine, as the organization ýresponsible for the development of technical and medical services in sports, must create ýfavorable conditions for success in the treatment and prevention of sports related incidents and ýprovision of administrative services.