title: Impact of the 2010 FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup on Pediatric Injury and Mortality in Cape Town, South Africa.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine how a mass-gathering event (the Federation Internationale de Football Association World Cup, 2010, South Africa) impacts trauma and mortality in the pediatric (≤ 18 years) population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated pediatric emergency visits at Cape Town's 3 largest public trauma centers and 3 private hospital groups, as well as deaths investigated by the 3 city mortuaries. We compared the 31 days of World Cup with equivalent periods from 2007-2009, and with the 2 weeks before and after the event. We also looked at the World Cup period in isolation and compared days with and without games in Cape Town.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was significantly decreased pediatric trauma volume during the World Cup, approximately 2/100,000 (37%) fewer injuries per day, compared with 2009 and to both pre- and post-World Cup control periods (P < .001). This decrease occurred within a majority of injury subtypes, but did not change mortality. There were temporal fluctuations in emergency visits corresponding with local match start time, with fewer all-cause emergency visits during the 5 hours surrounding this time (-16.4%, P = .01), followed by a subsequent spike (+26.2%, P = .02). There was an increase in trauma 12 hours following matches (+15.6%, P = .06).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In Cape Town, during the 2010 Federation Internationale de Football Association World Cup, there were fewer emergency department visits for traumatic injury. Furthermore, there were fewer all-cause pediatric emergency department visits during hometown matches. These results will assist in planning for future mass-gathering events.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of General Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zroback
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Anesthesia, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.affiliation: Labatt Family Heart Center, Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Cedric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Manlhiot
authors.affiliation: Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Trauma Unit, Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa; ChildSafe (Formerly known as the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Southern Africa), Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Ab Sebastian
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: van As
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: georges.azzie@sickkids.ca.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Azzie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012916:Soccer / Q000293:injuries*; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*
keywords: FIFA; Federation Internationale de Football Association; ICD-10; International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision