Team illness prevention strategy (TIPS) is associated with a 59% reduction in acute illness during the Super Rugby tournament: a control-intervention study over 7 seasons involving 126 850 player days.
illness
rugby
Journal
British journal of sports medicine
ISSN: 1473-0480
Titre abrégé: Br J Sports Med
Pays: England
ID NLM: 0432520
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Feb 2020
Feb 2020
Historique:
accepted:
16
07
2019
pubmed:
3
8
2019
medline:
23
2
2020
entrez:
3
8
2019
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
To determine whether a team illness prevention strategy (TIPS) would reduce the incidence of acute illness during the Super Rugby tournament. We studied 1340 male professional rugby union player seasons from six South African teams that participated in the Super Rugby tournament (2010-2016). Medical staff recorded all illnesses daily (126 850 player days) in a 3-year control (C: 2010-2012; 47 553 player days) and a 4-year intervention (I: 2013-2016; 79 297 player days) period. A five-element TIPS was implemented in the I period, following agreement by consensus. Incidence rate (IR: per 1000 player days; 95% CI) of all acute illnesses, illness by main organ system, infectious illness and illness burden (days lost due to illness per 1000 player days) were compared between C and I period. The IR of acute illness was significantly lower in the I (5.5: 4.7 to 6.4) versus the C period (13.2: 9.7 to 18.0) (p<0.001). The IR of respiratory (C=8.6: 6.3 to 11.7; I=3.8: 3.3 to 4.3) (p<0.0001), digestive (C=2.5: 1.8 to 3.6; I=1.1: 0.8 to 1.4) (p<0.001), skin and subcutaneous tissue illness (C=0.7: 0.4 to 1.4; I=0.3: 0.2 to 0.5) (p=0.0238), all infections (C=8.4: 5.9 to 11.9; I=4.3: 3.7 to 4.9) (p<0.001) and illness burden (C=9.2: 6.8 to 12.5; I=5.7: 4.1 to 7.8) (p=0.0314) were significantly lower in the I versus the C period. A TIPS during the Super Rugby tournament was associated with a lower incidence of all acute illnesses (59%), infectious illness (49%) and illness burden (39%). Our findings may have important clinical implications for other travelling team sport settings.
Identifiants
pubmed: 31371338
pii: bjsports-2019-100775
doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2019-100775
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Observational Study
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
245-249Commentaires et corrections
Type : ErratumIn
Informations de copyright
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Competing interests: CR is the chairman of the South Africa Rugby Football Union Medical Committee.