RÉSUMÉ
Objective To investigate the health condition of swimmers who swim in a river in Guangzhou city and to know the influencing factors in order to provide the scientific data for making the diseases control guide for swimmers swimming in the river.Methods The swimmers who swam in a river in Guangzhou city were selected and the cluster sampling survey was conducted by telephone interview and questionnaires in 2006.The statistic analysis of the data was done with the chi-square and Logistic regression.Results 17.9% of the investigated swimmers felt disconffortable in the first time to swim in the river,the main symptoms were eye and skin symptoms,12.2% had the same symptoms in second time to swim in the river,there was a significant difference between the prevalence rates of the eye symptoms.The Logistic regression analysis showed that the following factors were associated with the prevalence of discomfortable symptoms:age,gender,swimming with any kinds of tampon in unclean river water,in the first time to swim in the river and in the second time to swim in the river,the related OR values were 0.95 and 0.97,3.55 and 2.32,14.83 and 6.7.Other factors associated with the prevalence of discomfortable symptoms were as follows:swimming period in unclean fiver water,swimming stroke,chokes the water,times of choking water,using earplugs,head position in water,the related OR values were 1.06,0.50,2.1,1.22,0.44,1.65.Concousion To swim in the natural unclean river may cause the discomfort,the main problems are eye and skin symptoms.