title: Methodological quality of the injury surveillance system used in international athletics championships.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Incidence and prevalence data obtained from injury surveillance studies could be biased by the response rate as well as by the completeness and quality of the reports. It therefore appears crucial to analyse the quality of the injury surveillance system itself and thereby validate the quality of the data. This study aimed to analyse the quality of and compliance with the injury surveillance system implemented during international athletics championships.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective, epidemiological study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The national medical teams and the local organising committee physicians daily reported all injuries on a standardised injury report form during 14 international athletics championships from 2007 to 2015. The quality of the injury surveillance system was analysed following the guidelines laid down by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On average 41.7±17.4% (mean±standard deviation) of all registered countries participated in the injury surveillance project, accounting for a coverage of athletes of 79.5±10.2% of all registered athletes. Their medical staff returned 89.2±8.4% of the expected injury report forms (information is missing for one championship). The completeness of injury data provided by medical teams and local organising committee physicians averaged 95.8±6.5%. National medical teams reported 60.6±16.6% of all injuries, and local organising committee physicians 28.7±15.0% whereas 10.6±6.5% of injuries were reported by both.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The injury surveillance system used during international athletics championships provided good national medical team participation, coverage of athletes, response rate, and completeness of reports. These parameters should be systematically reported for injury surveillance studies to show the quality of the study.
authors.affiliation: Inter-university Laboratory of Human Movement Biology (LIBM EA 7424), University of Lyon, University Jean Monnet, France; Department of Clinical and Exercise Physiology, Sports Medicine Unit, University Hospital of Saint-Etienne, Faculty of Medicine, France; Medical Commission, French Athletics Federation (FFA), France. Electronic address: Pascal.Edouard42@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Edouard
authors.affiliation: European Athletics Medical & Anti Doping Commission, European Athletics Association (EAA), Switzerland; Medical & Anti Doping Commission, International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Monaco.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Branco
authors.affiliation: Medical & Anti Doping Commission, International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Monaco; Sports Medicine Department, ASPETAR, Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Qatar.
authors.forename: Juan Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.affiliation: FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC), Switzerland; Hamburg Medical School, Germany; Schulthess Clinic Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Junge
mesh_terms: D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies
keywords: Epidemiology; Injury surveillance; Methodology; Prospective studies; Sports injury prevention; Track and field