%0 Journal Article
%T Epidemiology and risk factors for heat illness: 11 years of heat stress monitoring programme data from the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
%J British journal of sports medicine
%D 2020
%A Racinais, Sebastien
%A Alhammoud, Marine
%A Nasir, Nada
%A Bahr, Roald
%V ePub
%N ePub
%P ePub-ePub
%X OBJECTIVES: To analyse 11 years of FIVB heat stress-monitoring data to determine the relative influence of the different environmental parameters in increasing the likelihood of a heat-related medical time-out (MTOheat).   METHODS: A total of 8530 matches were recorded. The referee measured air temperature, black globe temperature, relative humidity and wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) before the matches, and registered the MTOheat. The absolute humidity was computed at posteriori.   RESULTS: There were 20 MTOheat cases, but only 3 resulted in forfeiting the match. MTOheat incidence was not statistically impacted by sex (p=0.59). MTOheat cases were more prevalent during the games played in Asia during the 4th quarter of the year (p<0.001). Two cases of MTOheat experienced diarrhoea or gastroenteritis during the 5 preceding days; both of them forfeited the match. A principal component analysis showed a specific environmental profile for the matches with MTOheat. They occurred at higher WBGT, temperatures and absolute humidity (p<0.001), but with a lower relative humidity (p=0.027).   CONCLUSIONS: The current data showed that an increase in ambient or black globe temperature, but not relative humidity, increased the risk of a MTOheat; but that the absolute risk remained low in elite beach volleyball players. However, suffering or recovering from a recent illness may represent a risk factor for a MTOheat to lead to player forfeit.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I BMJ Publishing Group
%@ 0306-3674
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-103048