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Injury and illness surveillance, and epidemiological studies, are fundamental elements of concerted efforts to protect the health of the athlete. To encourage consistency in the definitions and methodology used, and to enable data across studies to be compared, research groups have published 11 sport-specific or setting-specific consensus statements on sports injury (and, eventually, illness) epidemiology to date. Our objective was to further strengthen consistency in data collection, injury definitions and research reporting through an updated set of recommendations for sports injury and illness studies, including a new Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist extension. The IOC invited a working group of international experts to review relevant literature and provide recommendations. The procedure included an open online survey, several stages of text drafting and consultation by working groups and a 3-day consensus meeting in October 2019. This statement includes recommendations for data collection and research reporting covering key components: defining and classifying health problems; severity of health problems; capturing and reporting athlete exposure; expressing risk; burden of health problems; study population characteristics and data collection methods. Based on these, we also developed a new reporting guideline as a STROBE Extension-the STROBE Sports Injury and Illness Surveillance (STROBE-SIIS). The IOC encourages ongoing in- and out-of-competition surveillance programmes and studies to describe injury and illness trends and patterns, understand their causes and develop measures to protect the health of the athlete. Implementation of the methods outlined in this statement will advance consistency in data collection and research reporting.

BACKGROUND: Injury and illness surveillance, and epidemiological studies, are fundamental elements of concerted efforts to protect the health of the athlete. To encourage consistency in the definitions and methodology used, and to enable data across studies to be compared, research groups have published 11 sport- or setting-specific consensus statements on sports injury (and, eventually, illnesses) epidemiology to date. OBJECTIVE: To further strengthen consistency in data collection, injury definitions, and research reporting through an updated set of recommendations for sports injury and illness studies, including a new Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist extension. STUDY DESIGN: Consensus statement of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). METHODS: The IOC invited a working group of international experts to review relevant literature and provide recommendations. The procedure included an open online survey, several stages of text drafting and consultation by working groups, and a 3-day consensus meeting in October 2019. RESULTS: This statement includes recommendations for data collection and research reporting covering key components: defining and classifying health problems, severity of health problems, capturing and reporting athlete exposure, expressing risk, burden of health problems, study population characteristics, and data collection methods. Based on these, we also developed a new reporting guideline as a STROBE extension-the STROBE Sports Injury and Illness Surveillance (STROBE-SIIS). CONCLUSION: The IOC encourages ongoing in- and out-of-competition surveillance programs and studies to describe injury and illness trends and patterns, understand their causes, and develop measures to protect the health of the athlete. The implementation of the methods outlined in this statement will advance consistency in data collection and research reporting.

Exercising in the heat induces thermoregulatory and other physiological strain that can lead to impairments in endurance exercise capacity. The purpose of this consensus statement is to provide up-to-date recommendations to optimise performance during sporting activities undertaken in hot ambient conditions. The most important intervention one can adopt to reduce physiological strain and optimise performance is to heat acclimatise. Heat acclimatisation should comprise repeated exercise-heat exposures over 1-2 weeks. In addition, athletes should initiate competition and training in a euhydrated state and minimise dehydration during exercise. Following the development of commercial cooling systems (eg, cooling-vest), athletes can implement cooling strategies to facilitate heat loss or increase heat storage capacity before training or competing in the heat. Moreover, event organisers should plan for large shaded areas, along with cooling and rehydration facilities, and schedule events in accordance with minimising the health risks of athletes, especially in mass participation events and during the first hot days of the year. Following the recent examples of the 2008 Olympics and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, sport governing bodies should consider allowing additional (or longer) recovery periods between and during events, for hydration and body cooling opportunities, when competitions are held in the heat.

01 mei 2014, Item does not contain fulltext, STUDY DESIGN: This was an observational study. OBJECTIVES: Spinal cord-injured (SCI) individuals are thermoregulatory compromised because of an inability to vasodilate and sweat below the injury, increasing the risk, proportional to the injury level, for marked core body temperature (CBT) rises. We compared thermoregulatory responses between wheelchair tennis players with and without a SCI. SETTING: British Open 2013, Nottingham, UK. METHODS: A total of 8 (3 SCI and 5 non-SCI) wheelchair tennis players played a 45-min match while we continuously measured CBT, 8-point skin temperature (Mean-Tsk) and exercise intensity (metabolic equivalent units (METs)). Thermal sensation and perceived exertion were measured before and after each set. Video-assisted logging of each serve, stroke and point duration was used to determine match intensity. No statistics were performed for CBT because of small sample sizes. RESULTS: Wet Bulb Globe Temperature varied between 18 and 20 degrees C. CBT increased stronger in the SCI players (+0.6+/-0.1 degrees C; n=2) compared with the non-SCI players (+0.3+/-0.1 degrees C; n=4), whereas Mean-Tsk was similar between groups (P=0.29). No Tsk differences were observed above (>T6) or below (< or =T6) the lesion level. Thermal sensation, perceived exertion, exercise and match intensity were similar between groups (all P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In this small, descriptive study, CBT increased slightly more in the SCI wheelchair tennis players compared with non-SCI players during a 45-min match in moderate environmental conditions. Further research to investigate whether SCI players are more prone to heat illness is warranted.