Female athlete health domains: a supplement to the International Olympic Committee consensus statement on methods for recording and reporting epidemiological data on injury and illness in sport

Abstract

The IOC made recommendations for recording and reporting epidemiological data on injuries and illness in sports in 2020, but with little, if any, focus on female athletes. Therefore, the aims of this supplement to the IOC consensus statement are to (i) propose a taxonomy for categorisation of female athlete health problems across the lifespan; (ii) make recommendations for data capture to inform consistent recording and reporting of symptoms, injuries, illnesses and other health outcomes in sports injury epidemiology and (iii) make recommendations for specifications when applying the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology-Sport Injury and Illness Surveillance (STROBE-SIIS) to female athlete health data.In May 2021, five researchers and clinicians with expertise in sports medicine, epidemiology and female athlete health convened to form a consensus working group, which identified key themes. Twenty additional experts were invited and an iterative process involving all authors was then used to extend the IOC consensus statement, to include issues which affect female athletes.Ten domains of female health for categorising health problems according to biological, life stage or environmental factors that affect females in sport were identified: menstrual and gynaecological health; preconception and assisted reproduction; pregnancy; postpartum; menopause; breast health; pelvic floor health; breast feeding, parenting and caregiving; mental health and sport environments.This paper extends the IOC consensus statement to include 10 domains of female health, which may affect female athletes across the lifespan, from adolescence through young adulthood, to mid-age and older age. Our recommendations for data capture relating to female athlete population characteristics, and injuries, illnesses and other health consequences, will improve the quality of epidemiological studies, to inform better injury and illness prevention strategies.

Development and implementation of an injury and illness surveillance system for team USA

“…The goal of sports epidemiology is to better understand injury and illness patterns across all levels of sport in order to develop and implement effective risk reduction strategies (Bahr et al 2020 ). To aid in this goal, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published a consensus statement in 2020 to guide the standardized collection and reporting of sport epidemiology data (Bahr et al 2020 ), and since that time there have been a number of supplemental publications focused on collection and reporting sport epidemiological data in specific populations or scenarios (Derman et al 2021 ; Mountjoy et al 2023 ; Moore et al 2023 ). For example, a recent supplement outlined practices for collecting data on athlete’s mental health symptoms (Mountjoy et al 2023 ).…”

“…In 2023, the Department of Sports Medicine within the USOPC completed a 5-year strategic planning exercise where a departmental purpose of delivering world-class, comprehensive healthcare to Team USA athletes was established. One of the downstream objectives of this strategic plan was to develop systems to improve operational efficiency and drive patient-centered care; the development of a robust injury and illness surveillance (IIS) system that aligns with current best practices (Bahr et al 2020 ; Derman et al 2021 ; Mountjoy et al 2023 ; Moore et al 2023 ) being one such system.…”

Orchard Sports Injury and Illness Classification System (OSIICS) Version 15

“…The most recent 2022 update (Version 14) 11 included coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) codes, additional female athlete codes and, for the first time, an Italian translation. Criticism of previous sports injury classification system versions was justified based on the lack of female athlete codes, 12 which had been largely redressed by OSIICS Versions 13 and 14. Version 14 also included some codes recommended by a published cycling consensus.…”

Big data. Big potential. Big problems?

“…For example, with menstrual cycle tracking, athletes should be provided with greater information on why the data are collected and what efforts have been made to achieve data minimisation. 9 In considering these important reflections on current data practices, anecdotal evidence would suggest that most organisations do not follow the principle of data minimisation.…”