Educating and promoting athletes’ health protection through infographics on injury and illness prevention during an international competition: a prospective study during the 2024 European Athletics Championships

Abstract

Objective To investigate the feasibility, perceived relevance and usefulness of providing injury and illness prevention information through infographics to athletes and medical teams before and during an international athletics championship, and its potential impact on injury and illness risk during the same championship.Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study during the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Roma with (1) dissemination of infographics, (2) data collection on perceived relevance (yes/no) and perceived usefulness (score from 0 to 100) of infographics among athletes and medical teams using an online questionnaire and (3) data collection by medical teams of newly incurred injuries and illnesses among athletes during the championship.Results Among the 124 athletes who completed the questionnaire, 35.5% had access to the infographics, of which 86.4% found the information relevant, and their perceived usefulness scores to reduce their risk were 51.8±23.9 (range: 2.9–100.0) for injuries and 50.6±23.0 (range: 0.0–100.0) for illnesses. Among the registered physicians and physiotherapists, 44 replied to the survey, 70.5% had access to the infographics, of which 83.9% found it relevant, and their perceived usefulness scores to reduce risk were 55.6±28.0 (range: 6.0–100.0) for injuries and 52.9±28.0 (range: 0.0–100.0) for illnesses. The logistic regression showed that a higher perceived usefulness score was associated with a lower risk of in-championship injury (OR 0.950; 95% CI 0.877 to 0.996).Conclusions Promoting the health protection of athletes through infographics on injury and illness prevention in the context of international athletics championships was feasible and may represent an additional prevention approach.