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

Isabel S Moore; Kay M Crossley; Kari Bo; Margo Mountjoy; Kathryn E Ackerman; Juliana da Silva Antero; Jorunn Sundgot Borgen; Wendy J Brown; Caroline S Bolling; Benjamin Clarsen; Wayne Derman; Paul Dijkstra; Amber Donaldson; Kirsty J Elliott-Sale; Carolyn A Emery; Lene Haakstad; Astrid Junge; Nonhlanhla S Mkumbuzi; Sophia Nimphius; Debbie Palmer; Mireille van Poppel; Jane S Thornton; Rita Tomás; Phathokuhle C Zondi; Evert Verhagen

doi:10.1136/bjsports-2022-106620

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

Br J Sports Med. 2023 Sep;57(18):1164-1174. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2022-106620. Epub 2023 Jun 22.

Authors

Isabel S Moore¹, Kay M Crossley², Kari Bo^{3

4}, Margo Mountjoy⁵, Kathryn E Ackerman⁶, Juliana da Silva Antero⁷, Jorunn Sundgot Borgen³, Wendy J Brown^{8

9}, Caroline S Bolling¹⁰, Benjamin Clarsen¹¹, Wayne Derman¹², Paul Dijkstra^{13

14}, Amber Donaldson^{15

16}, Kirsty J Elliott-Sale¹⁷, Carolyn A Emery¹⁸, Lene Haakstad³, Astrid Junge^{5

19}, Nonhlanhla S Mkumbuzi^{20

21

22

23}, Sophia Nimphius²⁴, Debbie Palmer^{25

26}, Mireille van Poppel²⁷, Jane S Thornton^{28

29}, Rita Tomás³⁰, Phathokuhle C Zondi³¹, Evert Verhagen³²

Affiliations

¹ Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, UK imoore@cardiffmet.ac.uk.
² La Trobe Sport and Exercise Sports Medicine Centre, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
³ Department of Sports Medicine, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Akershus University Hospital, Lorenskog, Norway.
⁵ Family Medicine, McMaster University Michael G DeGroote School of Medicine, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Wu Tsai Female Athlete Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁷ Institut National du Sport, de l'Expertise et de la Performance, INSEP, Paris, France.
⁸ Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
⁹ School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
¹⁰ Amsterdam Collaboration on Health & Safety in Sports, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Amsterdam Movement Science, Amsterdam UMC Locatie AMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹¹ Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway.
¹² Institute of Sport and Exercise Medicine, Department of Exercise, Sport and Lifestyle Medicine, Faculty Health Sciences Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
¹³ Medical Education Department, Aspetar Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar.
¹⁴ Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁵ Department of Sports Medicine, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.
¹⁶ U.S Coalition for the Prevention of Illness and Injury in Sport, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.
¹⁷ Institute of Sport, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK.
¹⁸ Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, Faculty of Kinesiology and Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
¹⁹ Institute of Interdisciplinary Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
²⁰ NtombiSport, Cape Town, South Africa.
²¹ Department of Rehabilitation, Midlands State University, Gweru, Midlands, Zimbabwe.
²² Department of Sports, Exercise, and Rehabilitation, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
²³ Department of Human Movement Science, Nelson Mandela University, Qheberha, South Africa.
²⁴ School of Medical and Health Sciences, Centre for Human Performance, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
²⁵ Edinburgh Sports Medicine Research Network, Institute for Sport Physical Education and Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
²⁶ School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
²⁷ Institute of Human Movement Science, Sport and Health, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
²⁸ Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
²⁹ Fowler Kennedy Sports Medicine Clinic, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
³⁰ Portugal Football School, Portuguese Football Federation, Oeiras, Portugal.
³¹ High Performance Commission, Medical Advisory Committee, South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, Salt Rock, South Africa.
³² Amsterdam Collaboration on Health & Safety in Sports, Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam Movement Science, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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.

Keywords: athletes; female; health.

Publication types

Consensus Development Conference

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Athletes
Athletic Injuries* / prevention & control
Female
Humans
Research Design
Sports Medicine* / methods
Sports*
Young Adult