2016 Rio Olympics: an epidemiological study of the men's and women's Rugby-7s tournaments.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence, severity and nature of injuries sustained during the men's and women's 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 Sevens World Series (SWS) and 2016 Olympic Games Rugby Sevens tournaments. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: All players from the core teams competing in the men's and women's 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 SWS (men: 15 teams; women: 11 teams) and all players from the men's (12 teams) and women's (12 teams) 2016 Rio Olympics tournaments. RESULTS: The gold, silver and bronze medal-winning women's teams contained bigger players (body mass and stature) than other teams but the men's medal winning teams came from across the size spectrum of men's teams competing at Rio 2016. The incidences of injury in the men's tournaments (2014/2015 SWS: 107.7 injuries/1000 player-match-hours (95% CI 90.9 to 127.4); 2015/2016 SWS: 109.7 (95% CI 93.7 to 128.6); Rio 2016: 124.5 (95% CI 73.7 to 210.2)) were higher but not statistically significant than those in the equivalent women's tournaments (2014/2015 SWS: 88.5 (95% CI 68.4 to 114.5), p=0.250; 2015/2016 SWS: 109.4 (95% CI 84.2 to 142.2), p=0.984; Rio 2016: 71.1 (95% CI 35.6 to 142.2), p=0.208). There were no statistically significant differences between the incidences of injury at the men's and women's 2016 Rio Olympics and the equivalent 2014/2015 (men: p=0.603; women: p=0.562) and 2015/2016 (men: p=0.652; women: p=0.254) SWS. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence, severity and nature of the injuries sustained during the men's and women's Rio 2016 Rugby-7s tournaments fell within the normal range of values for international Rugby-7s tournaments.

A successful nationwide implementation of the 'FIFA 11 for Health' programme in Brazilian elementary schools.

OBJECTIVES: To deliver a nationwide implementation of the 'FIFA 11 for Health' programme in Brazil and to compare the outcomes with results obtained previously in Sub-Saharan Africa. METHOD: A cohort study among 3694 Brazilian children aged 9-12 years within 128 elementary schools situated in 12 cities in the five Regions of Brazil. The 'FIFA 11 for Health' programme contains 11 90 min sessions: the first 45 min serve to encourage physical activity through the development of football skills (Play Football) and the second 45 min provide a vehicle for delivering 10 health messages (Play Fair). We measured preintervention and postintervention health knowledge (29-item questionnaire) and the children's evaluation of the programme (6-item questionnaire). RESULTS: Mean age of the children across the five Regions was 10.6 years (range 9.2-11.6). The mean preintervention health knowledge score for the five Regions was 60.2% (range 53.8-65.3%); the mean postintervention score was 78.6% (range 70.7-86.8%); thus the mean increase in health knowledge was 18.4% (range 13.6-29.1%). 91% of the children gave a positive evaluation for the programme (range across five Regions: 82.3-96.7%). SUMMARY: The study showed that the 'FIFA 11 for Health' programme, which was originally developed in English and translated into another language, was delivered successfully with results equivalent to those previously obtained in Sub-Saharan Africa. The programme was effective across the five Regions of Brazil.