Page 50 - 《运动与健康科学》(英文)2024年第2期

TaggedAPTARAFigure Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

TaggedAPTARAFigure

Journal of Sport and Health Science 13 (2024) 172185

Review

TaggedAPTARAH1Injury and illness in short-course triathletes: A systematic reviewTaggedAPTARAEnd
a
TaggedAPTARAPSara A. Guevara a,b , Melissa L. Crunkhorn a,c,d, *, Michael Drew , Gordon Waddington a,e ,
a
a
Julien D. P eriard , Naroa Etxebarria , Liam A. Toohey a,e , Paula Charlton a,d TaggedAPTARAEnd
a
TaggedAPTARAP University of Canberra Research Institute for Sport and Exercise (UCRISE), Bruce, ACT 2617, Australia
b
New South Wales Institute of Sport, Sydney, NSW 2127, Australia
c
Queensland Academy of Sport, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
d
Triathlon Australia, Gold Coast, QLD 4227, Australia
e
Australian Institute of Sport, Bruce, ACT 2617, Australia
TaggedAPTARAEnd Received 2 August 2022; revised 4 November 2022; accepted 11 January 2023
Available online 8 March 2023
2095-2546/Ó 2024 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Shanghai University of Sport. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
TaggedAPTARAPAbstract
Background: Determining the incidence and prevalence of injury and illness in short-course triathletes would improve understanding of their
etiologies and therefore assist in the development and implementation of prevention strategies. This study synthesizes the existing evidence on
the incidence and prevalence of injury and illness and summarizes reported injury or illness etiology and risk factors affecting short-course
triathletes.
Methods: This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Studies reporting health
problems (injury and illness) in triathletes (all sexes, ages, and experience levels) training and/or competing in short-course distances were
included. Six electronic databases (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, Embase, APA PsychINFO, Web of Science
Core Collection, and SPORTDiscus) were searched. Risk of bias was independently assessed by 2 reviewers using the NewcastleOttawa
Quality Assessment Scale. Two authors independently completed data extraction.
Results: The search yielded 7998 studies, with 42 studies eligible for inclusion. Twenty-three studies investigated injuries, 24 studies investigated
illnesses, and 5 studies investigated both injuries and illnesses. The injury incidence rate ranged 15.724.3 per 1000 athlete exposures, and the
illness incidence rate ranged 1.813.1 per 1000 athlete days. Injury and illness prevalence ranged between 2%15% and 6%84%, respec-
tively. Most injuries reported occurred during running (45%92%), and the most frequently reported illnesses affected the gastrointestinal
(7%70%), cardiovascular (14%59%), and respiratory systems (5%60%).
Conclusion: The most frequently reported health problems in short-course triathletes were: overuse and lower limb injuries associated with
running; gastrointestinal illnesses and altered cardiac function, primarily attributable to environmental factors; and respiratory illness mostly
caused by infection.

TaggedAPTARAPKeywords: Athlete illnesses; Athletic injuries; Epidemiology; TriathlonTaggedAPTARAEnd

short-course season consists of 818 races between March
TaggedAPTARAH11. IntroductionTaggedAPTARAEnd
3
and September. Weekly training for elite short-course triath-
TaggedAPTARAPTriathlon consists of 3 consecutive disciplines: swimming,
letes consists of 16 § 4 sessions/week (mean § SD) divided
cycling, and running, with races over a variety of distances.
into the various disciplines (swimming = 6 § 1, cycling = 4 §
Elite triathletes typically specialize in either short-course or 1, running = 5 § 2, and strength = 1 § 1 sessions). Training
3
1
long-course racing. Short-course races in triathlon include the
and competition strategies as well as physiological require-
standard distance (1.5-km swim, 40-km cycle, and 10-km run) ments for performance vary greatly between short and
2
and shorter sprint and super-sprint distances. A typical elite
long-course triathlons (i.e., distances greater than the standard
distance), 4,5 hence the importance of differentiating between
the two when characterizing injury and illness in triathletes.
TaggedAPTARAEnd Peer review under responsibility of Shanghai University of Sport.
TaggedAPTARAEnd * Corresponding Author. The training requirements for triathlon can lead to adaptations
E-mail address: melissa@crunkhorn.com (M.L. Crunkhorn). and improvements in performance or to maladaptation and
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2023.03.002
Cite this article: Guevara SA, Crunkhorn ML, Drew M, et al. Injury and illness in short-course triathletes: A systematic review. J Sport Health Sci
2024;13:17285.