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  • Incidence of injury and illness at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games held in a closed-loop environment: a prospective cohort study of 7332 athlete days

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Original research
Incidence of injury and illness at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games held in a closed-loop environment: a prospective cohort study of 7332 athlete days
  1. Wayne Derman1,2,
  2. Phoebe Runciman1,
  3. Maaike Eken1,
  4. Pieter-Henk Boer3,
  5. Cheri Blauwet4,
  6. Emmanouil Bogdos5,
  7. Anja Hirschmueller6,
  8. Esme Jordaan7,8,
  9. James Kissick9,
  10. Jan Lexell10,
  11. Fariba Mohammadi11,
  12. Marcelo Patricio12,
  13. Martin Schwellnus2,13,
  14. Nick Webborn14,
  15. Jian-Xin Zhou15
  1. 1 Institute of Sport and Exercise Medicine, Department of Exercise, Sport and Lifestyle Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
  2. 2 IOC Research Center, Pretoria, South Africa
  3. 3 Department of Human Movement Science, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
  4. 4 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
  5. 5 Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, General Hospital of Athens "G. Gennimatas", Athens, Greece
  6. 6 Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  7. 7 Biostatistics Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Parow, South Africa
  8. 8 Statistics and Population Studies Department, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
  9. 9 Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  10. 10 Department of Health Sciences, Rehabilitation Medicine Research Group, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
  11. 11 Department of Sport Medicine, Sport Sciences Research Institute, Tehran, Iran (the Islamic Republic of)
  12. 12 Trauma Observatory, National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  13. 13 Sport, Exercise Medicine and Lifestyle Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
  14. 14 School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
  15. 15 Department of Critical Care Medicine, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  1. Correspondence to Professor Wayne Derman; ewderman{at}iafrica.com

Abstract

Objective To describe the epidemiology of injuries and illnesses sustained during the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games, organised in a closed-loop environment to adhere with COVID-19 restrictions.

Methods Injuries and illnesses from all teams were recorded on a daily basis by team medical staff on a web-based form and by local organising committee medical (polyclinic) facilities and venue medical support. Duplicates recorded on both systems were removed. Incidence of injuries and illnesses are reported per 1000 athlete days (95% CI).

Results 564 athletes (426 male and 138 female) representing 46 countries were monitored for the 13-day period of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games (7332 athlete days). The overall incidences were 13.0 injuries (10.6–15.8) and 6.1 illnesses (4.5–8.4) per 1000 athlete days. The incidence of injury in alpine skiing (19.9; 15.2–26.1) was significantly higher compared with Nordic skiing, ice hockey and wheelchair curling (p<0.05), while the incidence of respiratory illness was significantly higher in Nordic skiing (1.6; 0.9–2.9) compared with alpine skiing, ice hockey and snowboarding (p<0.05).

Conclusion The incidence of both injury and illness at the Beijing 2022 Games were the lowest yet reported in the Paralympic Winter Games. The incidence of injury was highest in alpine skiing. These findings underscore the importance of ongoing vigilance and continued injury risk mitigation strategies to safeguard the well-being of athletes in these high-risk competitions. Respiratory illnesses were most commonly reported in Nordic skiing, which included the three cases of COVID-19 recorded at the games.

  • sports medicine
  • para-athletes

Data availability statement

No data are available.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-107525

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    Data availability statement

    No data are available.

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    Footnotes

    • X @wderman, @PhoebeRunciman, @MaaikeEken, @CheriBlauwetMD, @jan.lexell, @SportswiseUK

    • Correction notice This article has been corrected since it published Online First. Affiliation number 11 has been corrected.

    • Contributors WD is guarantor.

    • Funding Funding for this study was provided by the IOC Research Centre South Africa grant and International Paralympic Committee research support.

    • Competing interests WD and MS are associate editors of BJSM IPHP editions.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.