A self-reported questionnaire for quantifying illness symptoms in elite athletes

Abstract

To develop and evaluate a questionnaire that quantifies the self-reported frequency, duration and severity of illness symptoms in highly-trained athletes. We examined whether runners had more symptoms than recreationally-active individuals, and whether runners more prone to illness were undertaking more strenuous training programs. Methods: A daily illness questionnaire was administered for three months during the summer to quantify the type, frequency, duration, and severity of illness symptoms as well as the functional impact on the ability to undertake exercise performance. A total of 35 participants (12 highlytrained runners living in a community setting and 23 recreationally-active medical students) completed the questionnaire. Results: Runners had a similar frequency of illness (2.1 ± 1.2 vs. 1.8 ± 2.3 episodes, mean ± SD, P = 0.58), but substantially longer duration (5.5 ± 9.9 vs 2.8 ± 3.1 days, P  0.01) and illness load (7.7 ± 16.2 vs 4.5 ± 4.8 units, P = 0.001) than age-and sex-matched recreationally-active individuals respectively. Runners more prone to illness symptoms had marginally higher training loads. Conclusions: The athlete illness questionnaire is useful for quantifying the pattern of selfreported symptoms of illness in field settings. Highly-trained runners experience longer episodes of illness with a greater impact on daily activity than recreationally-active individuals.

Self-Reported Outcome Measures of the Impact of Injury and Illness on Athlete Performance: A Systematic Review

“… How much do you feel your arm affects your current level of competition? 10-point VAS score Self-administered At beginning and end of playing season Overhead throwing athletes Illness surveillance Athlete diary [ 35 ] Demographics Training load Illness behaviour Did you train? Are you ill or injured?…”

“…Nine different athlete-reported outcome measures were used in ten observational (epidemiological or surveillance) studies [ 26 , 27 , 29 , 30 , 33 , 35 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 46 ]. However, most were designed for use in individual studies without reference to evidence of validity.…”

How much is too much? (Part 2) International Olympic Committee consensus statement on load in sport and risk of illness

“…Very high training loads are associated with the highest risk of illness in this model. In general, there is good evidence from a number of studies in recreational, 55 56 59 64–67 subelite 68 69 or national-level athletes, 70–72 that higher absolute training loads are associated with an increased risk of illness. Similarly, there is some evidence that low training loads or no training is associated with an increased risk of illness compared with a moderate training load.…”