Injury, illness, and medication use surveillance during the 2020 COSAFA Women’s championship: a prospective cohort study of football players from Southern Africa

ABSTRACT

Background

Systematic analyses of injuries, illnesses or medication use and their risk factors among female African athletes are scarce, which has implications for management of these athletes.

Aim

This prospective cohort study analysed the incidence and characteristics of injuries, illnesses and medication use during the 2020 COSAFA Women’s Championship.

Methods

The medical personnel of all participating teams reported all new injuries, illnesses and medication used by players daily.

Results

Sixty-three injuries were reported: 45 match and 18 training injuries; 45.5 (95% CI: 32.2 to 58.8) injuries/1000 match-hours and 21.7 (95% CI: 11.7 to 31.7) injuries/1000 training-hours, respectively. Most (n = 55, 87%) were caused by contact with another player and involved the lower extremity (n = 43; 68%). Fifty-eight illnesses were reported: 44.4 (95% CI: 33.0 to 58.8) illnesses/1000 player-days, mostly diarrhoea (n = 25; 43.1%) and dysmenorrhoea (n = 18; 31%). No cases of COVID-19 were reported. In total, 175 medications were prescribed: 168.8 (95% CI: 143.8 to 193.8) medications/1000 player-days. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (n = 60; 34.3%) and analgesics (n = 33; 18.9%) were the most commonly prescribed drugs.

Conclusion

Incidences of injury and illnesses were high but time loss was low, likely due to high NSAIDs use. Further studies should be conducted in order to inform appropriate prevention or management protocols in this population.

KEYWORDS:

• Football
• injuries
• women
• African

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Solomon Mudege for facilitating the conduct of this research. The authors also acknowledge the Local Organising Committee of the 2020 COSAFA Women’s Championship for their assistance in carrying out this study. Additionally, the authors are grateful to the team medical personnel and football players of the participating teams for their help with collecting the data in these studies and their participation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceptualisation of study- NSM, FC, FMG; Sourcing of funding- NSM; Data collection and recording- NSM, SBD; Data analyses- NSM; Critical revision of manuscripts and final draft- NSM; FC; SBD; FMG; Senior author- NSM

Data sharing statement

Individual, de-identified data collected in the study will be made available following publication, for aims approved in the proposal and upon reasonable request to the corresponding author on [email protected]. These data will be available for 3 years after publication.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Zurich, Switzerland.