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Abstract
Objective To analyse associations between feels-like temperatures measured with the universal thermal climate index (UTCI) and injury rates during international athletic championships.
Methods During 10 international outdoor athletic championships from 2007 to 2022, in-competition injuries were collected by medical teams and local organising committees. UTCI was extracted hourly from a global reanalysis of observed atmospheric conditions during each championship. We performed Poisson regressions with incidence rates (number of injuries per 1000 athlete starts) as outcomes and UTCI as a predictive variable adjusted for sex, for all and time-loss injuries, for different injured tissue types (ie, muscle, tendon, ligament, articular, bone and skin) and specific discipline (ie, sprints, hurdles, jumps, throws, middle distance, long distance, marathon and race walking).
Results A total of 1203 in-competition injuries were reported for 29 579 athlete starts. For all in-competition injuries (ie, all injured tissue types and all disciplines), higher UTCI was associated with lower incidence rates for time-loss injuries (IRR=0.98, 95% CI 0.97 to 0.98) but not for all injuries (IRR=1.00, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.01). Based on injured tissue type with all disciplines included, higher UTCI was associated with lower incidence rates for all (IRR=0.97, 95% CI 0.97 to 0.98) and time-loss (IRR=0.96, 95% CI 0.96 to 0.96) muscle injuries. Based on the specific discipline, higher UTCI was associated with lower incidence rates for all and time-loss muscle injuries for sprints (IRR=0.95, 95% CI 0.95 to 0.96, and IRR=0.94, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.94, respectively), hurdles (IRR=0.97, 95% CI 0.96 to 97, and IRR=0.95, 95% CI 0.94 to 0.96, respectively) and throws (IRR=0.97, 95% CI 0.97 to 0.98).
Conclusions Higher feels-like temperatures were associated with a decreased risk of time-loss and muscle injuries, particularly in sprints, hurdles and throws. Although the precise mechanism for lower injury rates with higher feels-like temperatures requires further investigation, adapting preparations such as warm-up or clothing to forecasted weather conditions may be of benefit.
- Epidemiology
- Body Temperature Regulation
- Muscle
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. Meteorological data are from ERA5 HEAT (Di Napoli, 2022) and specifically for the championships available at Navarro and Klöwer, 2024. Navarro, L, & Klöwer, M (2024). milankl/AthleticsChampionshipsHeat: Meteorological data and analysis scripts for BJSM 2024 publication (v2.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13908135. Injury data are available upon reasonable request. Requests for data sharing from appropriate researchers and entities will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Interested parties should contact the corresponding author Pascal Edouard (pascal.edouard@univ-st-etienne.fr).
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. Meteorological data are from ERA5 HEAT (Di Napoli, 2022) and specifically for the championships available at Navarro and Klöwer, 2024. Navarro, L, & Klöwer, M (2024). milankl/AthleticsChampionshipsHeat: Meteorological data and analysis scripts for BJSM 2024 publication (v2.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13908135. Injury data are available upon reasonable request. Requests for data sharing from appropriate researchers and entities will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Interested parties should contact the corresponding author Pascal Edouard (pascal.edouard@univ-st-etienne.fr).
Footnotes
X @https://x.com/PascalEdouard42, @https://x.com/milankloewer, @ephysiol, @k_hollander_, @https://x.com/LaurentNavarro5
Correction notice This article has been corrected since it published Online First. The term 'feel-like temperature' has been corrected to 'feels-like temperature' throughout the article.
Contributors PE conceived the study; PE and PB participated to injury data collection; MK and LN performed meteorological data extraction; P-ED performed the population data extraction; PE, MK and LN discussed and performed data analyses; PE drafted the manuscript; and all co-authors discussed the analysis, contributed substantially to interpreting the results, provided important revisions, and approved the manuscript. All authors understand that they are accountable for all aspects of the work and ensure the accuracy or integrity of this manuscript. PE is the guarantor of the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared. PE and SR are Associate Editors for the British Journal of Sports Medicine. KH is an Editor for the German Journal of Sports Medicine. PE and KH are Associate Editors for the BMJ Open Sports and Exercise Medicine.
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.
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