Health surveillance for South African Para athletes: an 88-week prospective study in a resource-limited setting
(2025) In American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation- Abstract
- Objectives
Longitudinal health monitoring studies including Para athletes are lacking in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to introduce a surveillance programme developed for Swedish Para athletes to high-level South African Para athletes and describe their self-reported health outcomes.
Design
Using a prospective cohort design, we distributed weekly electronic surveys to Para athletes for 88 weeks. These included questions relating to training (e.g., volume, intensity), health (e.g., pain, injury, illness, symptoms of anxiety or depression) and lifestyle (e.g., diet, sleep).
Results
Of 28 recruited athletes, 21 responded to ≥1 survey (13 males and 8 females; 42.6% response rate).... (More) - Objectives
Longitudinal health monitoring studies including Para athletes are lacking in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to introduce a surveillance programme developed for Swedish Para athletes to high-level South African Para athletes and describe their self-reported health outcomes.
Design
Using a prospective cohort design, we distributed weekly electronic surveys to Para athletes for 88 weeks. These included questions relating to training (e.g., volume, intensity), health (e.g., pain, injury, illness, symptoms of anxiety or depression) and lifestyle (e.g., diet, sleep).
Results
Of 28 recruited athletes, 21 responded to ≥1 survey (13 males and 8 females; 42.6% response rate). During an average week, 48% of athletes experienced mild-to-severe pain, 25% reported a new or ongoing injury or illness, 67% slept less than eight hours per night, and 20% reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. The overall injury incidence was 3.1 per 1000 hours.
Conclusion
Longitudinal health monitoring is challenging in LMICs and each setting’s unique barriers and facilitators must be explored and acknowledged if such programmes are to be sustained. Our data suggest that pain, injuries, illnesses and symptoms of anxiety or depression are common among high-level South African Para athletes and efforts should be made to manage these. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/b3c102bf-f159-4907-873c-d38f2f384eb6
- author
- Wik, Eirik Halvorsen ; Runciman, Phoebe ; Eken, Maaike ; Kunorozva, Lovemore ; Lexell, Jan LU ; Derman, Wayne and Fagher, Kristina LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-08-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- in
- American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
- publisher
- Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:40856473
- ISSN
- 0894-9115
- DOI
- 10.1097/PHM.0000000000002810
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b3c102bf-f159-4907-873c-d38f2f384eb6
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-26 20:51:40
- date last changed
- 2025-08-27 07:26:27
@article{b3c102bf-f159-4907-873c-d38f2f384eb6,
abstract = {{Objectives <br/>Longitudinal health monitoring studies including Para athletes are lacking in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to introduce a surveillance programme developed for Swedish Para athletes to high-level South African Para athletes and describe their self-reported health outcomes.<br/><br/>Design <br/>Using a prospective cohort design, we distributed weekly electronic surveys to Para athletes for 88 weeks. These included questions relating to training (e.g., volume, intensity), health (e.g., pain, injury, illness, symptoms of anxiety or depression) and lifestyle (e.g., diet, sleep).<br/><br/>Results <br/>Of 28 recruited athletes, 21 responded to ≥1 survey (13 males and 8 females; 42.6% response rate). During an average week, 48% of athletes experienced mild-to-severe pain, 25% reported a new or ongoing injury or illness, 67% slept less than eight hours per night, and 20% reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. The overall injury incidence was 3.1 per 1000 hours.<br/><br/>Conclusion <br/>Longitudinal health monitoring is challenging in LMICs and each setting’s unique barriers and facilitators must be explored and acknowledged if such programmes are to be sustained. Our data suggest that pain, injuries, illnesses and symptoms of anxiety or depression are common among high-level South African Para athletes and efforts should be made to manage these.}},
author = {{Wik, Eirik Halvorsen and Runciman, Phoebe and Eken, Maaike and Kunorozva, Lovemore and Lexell, Jan and Derman, Wayne and Fagher, Kristina}},
issn = {{0894-9115}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{08}},
publisher = {{Lippincott Williams & Wilkins}},
series = {{American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation}},
title = {{Health surveillance for South African Para athletes: an 88-week prospective study in a resource-limited setting}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PHM.0000000000002810}},
doi = {{10.1097/PHM.0000000000002810}},
year = {{2025}},
}