Attitudes of elite athletes and their support staff to the influenza vaccine.

BACKGROUND: Influenza is an important public health issue, even amongst healthy adults. Uptake rates of the influenza vaccine amongst elite athletes vary and can depend on the attitudes of their coaches, fellow athletes and support staff. International studies have documented a fear amongst elite athletes to the potential side effects of the vaccine. AIMS: Determine the influenza vaccine uptake rates in elite Irish athletes and their support staff along with attitudes, fears and barriers to receiving it. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed in the Sport Ireland Institute. Elite athletes and support staff from the 2019 database were invited to participate via an anonymous online survey. The database included a variety of sports, e.g. athletics, boxing, cycling, rowing, swimming and para-athletics. RESULTS: From 218 athletes and staff invited, 39% (n = 87 [43 male, 44 female]) responded to the online survey. Fifty-nine percent (n = 51) of participants received the influenza vaccine during the 2018/2019 season. Forty-six percent (n = 40) completely agree that the influenza vaccine is safe. Fourteen percent (n = 12) of participants believe the vaccine causes influenza. "Getting sick" from the vaccine was the biggest fear for participants. Athletes were least likely to recommend the influenza vaccine to others and most likely to fear missing time from training or work as a result of it. CONCLUSIONS: Elite Irish athletes are vulnerable to contracting influenza annually, despite free access to immunisation. Barriers to receiving the vaccine include location access, education and fear of side effects.

Association of artificial turf and concussion in competitive contact sports: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of head injuries and concussion in contact sports, comparing natural grass with artificial turf surfaces. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis via the RevMan V.5.3 software. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: All studies describing competitive contact sports played on both natural grass and artificial turf. The primary outcome measured was occurrence of head injury and concussion. DATA SOURCES: The databases include PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Medline and Sport Discus. The last search took place on 23 May 2019. The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale evaluated the methodological quality of the selected studies with a funnel plot designed to determine publication bias. Study screening and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers. RESULTS: Initial screening generated 42 publications, with 12 meeting criteria for inclusion. Eight studies described concussion only. The rate ratio (RR) of head injury and concussion was less on artificial turf compared with natural grass (RR=0.89, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.04) as was the rate ratio of concussion only (RR=0.72, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.89). CONCLUSION: Analysis of published data demonstrates a decreased incidence of head injury and concussion when contact sports are played on artificial turf. This difference was most marked for sports such as rugby and American football. However, artificial turf has no association with the incidence of head injury or concussion while playing soccer.

Integrity Testing of Pile Cover Using Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing.

The integrity of cast-in-place foundation piles is a major concern in geotechnical engineering. In this study, distributed fibre optic sensing (DFOS) cables, embedded in a pile during concreting, are used to measure the changes in concrete curing temperature profile to infer concrete cover thickness through modelling of heat transfer processes within the concrete and adjacent ground. A field trial was conducted at a high-rise building construction site in London during the construction of a 51 m long test pile. DFOS cables were attached to the reinforcement cage of the pile at four different axial directions to obtain distributed temperature change data along the pile. The monitoring data shows a clear development of concrete hydration temperature with time and the pattern of the change varies due to small changes in concrete cover. A one-dimensional axisymmetric heat transfer finite element (FE) model is used to estimate the pile geometry with depth by back analysing the DFOS data. The results show that the estimated pile diameter varies with depth in the range between 1.40 and 1.56 m for this instrumented pile. This average pile diameter profile compares well to that obtained with the standard Thermal Integrity Profiling (TIP) method. A parametric study is conducted to examine the sensitivity of concrete and soil thermal properties on estimating the pile geometry.