Surveillance of athlete mental health symptoms and disorders: a supplement to the International Olympic Committee’s consensus statement on injury and illness surveillance

Abstract

In 2019, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published a consensus statement outlining the principles for recording and reporting injury and illness in elite sport. The authors encouraged sport federations to adapt the framework to their sport-specific context. Since this publication, several sports have published extensions to the IOC consensus statement.In response to a paucity of epidemiological data on athlete mental health, the IOC mental health working group adapted the IOC consensus statement on injury and illness surveillance to improve the capturing of athlete mental health data. In addition to the members of the working group, other experts and athlete representatives joined the project team to address gaps in expertise, and to add stakeholder perspective, respectively. Following an in-person meeting, the authors worked remotely, applying the scientific literature on athlete mental health to the IOC injury and illness surveillance framework. A virtual meeting was held to reach consensus on final recommendations.Practical outcomes based on the analysis of the scientific literature are provided with respect to surveillance design, data collection and storage, data analysis and reporting of athlete mental health data. Mental health-specific report forms for athlete and health professional utilisation are included for both longitudinal and event-specific surveillance.Ultimately, this publication should encourage the standardisation of surveillance methodology for mental health symptoms and disorders among athletes, which will improve consistency in study designs, thus facilitating the pooling of data and comparison across studies. The goal is to encourage systematic surveillance of athlete mental health.

Suicide in National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes: a 20-year analysis

“…In aggregate, it appears that rates of depression among the young adult general population are higher than among collegiate athletes 3 4 24. Although those who compete in collegiate sports may have lower rates of depression compared with the general population, the absolute rate of mental health issues in this population remain concerning with the NCAA and International Olympic Committee recommending regular mental health screening in athletes 5–8…”

“…In the USA, suicide rates across all ages increased by approximately 36% between 2001 and 2021 2. Data from 2001 to 2020 demonstrate suicide rates, specifically among young adults,3–9 have also increased, rising to their highest level in 2020 10. Death by suicide is now the third leading cause of death in the USA in the general population ages 18–24 after accidents and homicide 10.…”

Team USA injury and illness incidence at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

“…Although future surveillance work will incorporate the most contemporary diagnostic codes, the current study is limited in terms of classifying infectious illnesses as their own body system (‘infections’), whereby more recent versions of the Orchard Sports Injury and Illness Classification System (OSIICS) system would include infection as an aetiology within other body system categories. Lastly, out of concerns regarding athlete privacy and the abstention from delivering formal psychological diagnoses, along with the absence of standardised methods for monitoring mental health conditions among athletes during the data collection phase (the mental health supplement to the IOC surveillance consensus statement was published in July 202347), the sports medicine and psychological services team made the decision not to classify mental health interactions, consequently omitting them from the overarching surveillance programme. As such, a broad aspect of holistic athlete health and well-being remains unaddressed in the current framework, and thus it is imperative that future athlete health surveillance systems take this into account, as has been recently recommended 47…”

“…Lastly, out of concerns regarding athlete privacy and the abstention from delivering formal psychological diagnoses, along with the absence of standardised methods for monitoring mental health conditions among athletes during the data collection phase (the mental health supplement to the IOC surveillance consensus statement was published in July 202347), the sports medicine and psychological services team made the decision not to classify mental health interactions, consequently omitting them from the overarching surveillance programme. As such, a broad aspect of holistic athlete health and well-being remains unaddressed in the current framework, and thus it is imperative that future athlete health surveillance systems take this into account, as has been recently recommended 47…”

Practice and relevance of sports psychiatry in promoting athletes’ mental health in Japan

“…Then, in order to prevent any misuse of the information for purposes such as athlete selection or contract negotiations, it is important to strictly and reliably implement informed consent for athletes and the de-identification of personal information. Mountjoy et al [44] have recently developed surveillance formats that may be useful in reviewing diagnosis, treatment and outcomes and in developing practice guidelines for athletes. With regards the mental health of elite athletes, Reardon et al [45] identified 13 key steps for future directions.…”