title: Clinical characteristics of 385 illnesses of athletes with impairment reported on the WEB-IISS system during the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prevention of illness is important for a team physician. However, there are few studies that reported clinical aspects of illness of athletes with impairment.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the clinical characteristics of the 385 illnesses reported on the a novel Web-based electronic injury and illness capturing system (WEB-IISS) during the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
  
  
  METHODS
  Part of a large prospective cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  London 2012 Paralympic Games.
  
  
  METHODS
  Team physicians of 78 delegations (3329 athletes over 14 days) used WEB-IISS. Each day, information was recorded, which included daily team size and illness details, system affected, final diagnosis, type and onset of symptoms, training and/or competition days lost, and suspected cause.
  
  
  METHODS
  Incidence of illness (illness per 1000 athlete days).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The incidence of illness in the cohort was 8.3 per 1000 (95% confidence interval, 7.5-9.1) athlete days, and the percentage of athletes with an illness in this study was 9.2%. Respiratory system illnesses were the most common (39.4%), followed by the digestive system (15.8%), skin and subcutaneous system (11.8%), genitourinary system (8.8%), and nervous system (7.3%). Urinary tract illness was more common in athletes with spinal cord injury (22%) compared with the athletes with other impairments (0%-5%). Skin and subcutaneous illness varied from 0%-18% between impairment categories and was highest for athletes with spinal cord injury. Infections accounted for 40.8% of all illness and 19.5% of illness that resulted in a time loss of ≥1 day. In 34% of illnesses, symptoms were present for ≥1 day before being reported to the team physician.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The majority of illnesses affected the respiratory, gastrointestinal, skin and subcutaneous, and genitourinary systems, and were mostly infective in nature. The highest number of all illnesses, including skin and subcutaneous illnesses, and urinary tract illnesses, were of athletes with spinal cord injury. Although most illnesses were not time-loss illnesses, 19.5% of illnesses resulted in ≥1 day lost. Team physicians should be aware that, in many cases of infection reported, the symptoms were already present the day before. A delay in reporting of symptoms >24 hours could have important clinical implications for athletes' medical care.
authors.affiliation: University of Cape Town/Medical Research Council, Research Unit for Exercise, Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa; International Olympic Committee Research Centre, Cape Town, South Africa∗. Electronic address: ewderman@iafrica.com.
authors.forename: Wayne
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Derman
authors.affiliation: University of Cape Town/Medical Research Council, Research Unit for Exercise, Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa; International Olympic Committee Research Centre, Cape Town, South Africa†
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schwellnus
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics Unit, Medical Research Council, Parow, South Africa; Statistics and Population Studies Department, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa‡
authors.forename: Esme
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jordaan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D056352:Athletes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064846:Sports for Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult