An eHealth Application of Self-Reported Sports-Related Injuries and Illnesses in Paralympic Sport: Pilot Feasibility and Usability Study

Abstract

BackgroundSport participation is associated with a risk of sports-related injuries and illnesses, and Paralympic athletes’ additional medical issues can be a challenge to health care providers and medical staff. However, few prospective studies have assessed sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport (SRIIPS) over time. Advances in mobile phone technology and networking systems offer novel opportunities to develop innovative eHealth applications for collection of athletes’ self-reports. Using eHealth applications for collection of self-reported SRIIPS is an unexplored area, and before initiation of full-scale research of SRIIPS, the feasibility and usability of such an approach needs to be ascertained.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to perform a 4-week pilot study and (1) evaluate the monitoring feasibility and system usability of a novel eHealth application for self-reported SRIIPS and (2) report preliminary data on SRIIPS.MethodsAn eHealth application for routine collection of data from athletes was developed and adapted to Paralympic athletes. A 4-week pilot study was performed where Paralympic athletes (n=28) were asked to weekly self-report sport exposure, training load, general well-being, pain, sleep, anxiety, and possible SRIIPS. The data collection was followed by a poststudy use assessment survey. Quantitative data related to the system use (eg, completed self-reports, missing responses, and errors) were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The qualitative feasibility and usability data provided by the athletes were condensed and categorized using thematic analysis methods.ResultsThe weekly response rate was 95%. The athletes were of the opinion that the eHealth application was usable and feasible but stated that it was not fully adapted to Paralympic athletes and their impairments. For example, it was difficult to understand how a new injury or illness should be identified when the impairment was involved. More survey items related to the impairments were requested, as the athletes perceived that injuries and illnesses often occurred because of the impairment. Options for description of multifactorial incidents including an injury, an illness, and the impairment were also insufficient. Few technical issues were encountered, but athletes with visual impairment reported usability difficulties with the speech synthesizer. An incidence rate of 1.8 injuries and 1.7 illnesses per 100 hours of athlete exposure were recorded. The weekly pain prevalence was 56% and the impairment contributed to 20% of the reported incidents.ConclusionsThe novel eHealth-based application for self-reported SRIIPS developed and tested in this pilot study was generally feasible and usable. With some adaptation to accommodate Paralympic athletes’ prerequisites and improved technical support for athletes with visual impairment, this application can be recommended for use in prospective studies of SRIIPS.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02788500; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02788500 (Archived by W...

Prevalence of Sports‐Related Injuries and Illnesses in Paralympic Athletes

“…The study is part of SRIIPSS, which is a prospective (1‐year) longitudinal study of self‐reported SRIIPS . The eHealth application used for data collection has previously been described and tested in a feasibility and usability pilot study . The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Lund (Dnr 2016/169) and followed the ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects per the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.…”

“…19 The overall objective is to prospectively estimate the burden of SRIIPS among Swedish Paralympic athletes using an eHealth application specifically developed for Paralympic athletes. 20 At the start of this prospective study, the athletes completed a baseline questionnaire on existing and previous SRIIPS during the past year, as well as athlete demographics, impairment, behaviors, and sport characteristics. This allowed us to analyze the prevalence of SRIIPS as an overall indicator of disease status by measuring the proportion of the outcome in this understudied population at different time points.…”

“…The overall point prevalence of illnesses was 13% (95% CI [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]; ranging from 9% (95% CI 3-18) among male athletes to 23% (95% CI 12-40) among females. The age group 35 to 63 years displayed the highest prevalence (18%; 95% CI 8-35) ( Table 3).…”

“…To improve our knowledge, we have initiated the Sports‐related Injuries and Illnesses in Paralympic Sport Study (SRIIPSS) . The overall objective is to prospectively estimate the burden of SRIIPS among Swedish Paralympic athletes using an eHealth application specifically developed for Paralympic athletes . At the start of this prospective study, the athletes completed a baseline questionnaire on existing and previous SRIIPS during the past year, as well as athlete demographics, impairment, behaviors, and sport characteristics.…”

mHealth Self-Report Monitoring Using the Technology Acceptance Model in Competitive Middle- and Long-Distance Runners: Qualitative Study of Long-Term Use Intentions (Preprint)

“…The finding that mHSM usability was associated with the structure of the survey items can be compared to experiences from electronic data collection on pre-participation health in association with athletics championships [26] and mHSM among Paralympic athletes [27]. In both these contexts, the athletes encountered few usability problems, but expressed concerns about medical terminology and formulation of the survey items.…”