Illness monitoring in team sports using a Web-based training diary.
OBJECTIVE
Use of Web-based data recording systems has received little attention in sport. An "online" training diary could provide a valuable alternative to pen-paper methods in the regular assessment of physical activity and illness occurrence in athletes. The objective of this study was to design and implement a user-friendly and efficient system to monitor incidences of illness in team sport athletes.


METHODS
Prospective monitoring study over a 48-week rugby season. Players were asked to register presence/absence of weekly illness symptoms with medical staff and also use an online training diary. Submitted self-reported diary illness data were compared with illness complaint data recorded by medical staff. Diary response rates were calculated from the number of completed diary entries against the number of available/required entries over the season.


METHODS
Web-based training diary.


METHODS
Thirty professional rugby union players.


METHODS
Comparison of gastrointestinal and upper respiratory illnesses (URIs) reported by players using an online diary and to medical staff.


METHODS
Incidences of URIs.


RESULTS
The diary response rate in the reporting of weekly illnesses was 79% over the study period. Discrepancy existed between the number of self-reported URIs by players using the diary (118 URI incidences) compared with those reported to medical staff (23 URI incidences). Totaling all URI episodes (those self-reported + those registered by medical staff) revealed that players reported just 19% of URI episodes to medical staff.


CONCLUSIONS
Players tend to underreport incidences of banal infections. Closer monitoring of self-reported illnesses using a similar system in the present study may provide a better alternative to previous methods in nonclinical illness assessment.
Cunniffe
Brian
B
Department of Health, Exercise, Sport and Science, University of Glamorgan, Trefforest, Wales, United Kingdom. briancunniffe@hotmail.com
Griffiths
Hywel
H
Proctor
Wayne
W
Jones
Ken P
KP
Baker
Julien S
JS
Davies
Bruce
B
D000328:Adult; D056352:Athletes; D005538:Football; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology