A systematic review of guidelines for the prevention of heat illness in community-based sports participants and officials.

This paper presents the findings of a systematic review of guidelines on preventing heat illness in sports participants and officials. University library databases and Internet sources were searched for guidelines pertaining to community-based sports, and occupational health and safety, using a comprehensive list of search terms. Guidelines were included if they met the criteria of English language, full text and fully referenced, and dealt specifically with, or could be extrapolated to, prevention of heat illness in sports participants and officials. Guideline inclusion was evaluated by two independent reviewers, who also independently assessed guideline quality using the AGREE instrument. Common guideline themes were identified by synthesis and recommendations for each theme were extracted. A synthesis of recommendations for common themes was then undertaken. Thirteen eligible guidelines were included. Thirty-two guidelines were excluded, as they did not provide sufficient information on construction or references. The methodological quality of the included guidelines was variable. The evidence-base of the guidelines varied, reflecting primary and secondary research. While five common heat-illness prevention themes were identified (fluid intake, heat limits, clothing, acclimatisation, precautionary interventions), variable recommendations were made pertaining to these themes. This potentially reflected the variable underpinning evidence of the guidelines. This review highlighted the need for better quality guideline construction related to defensible and transparent evidence sources regarding sports participation in hot weather. The synthesised recommendations cautiously provide a framework of current best evidence upon which sporting organisations internationally can base strategies for safe participation in the heat.

Prevalence of hot weather conditions related to sports participation guidelines: a South Australian investigation.

BACKGROUND: There is scant guidance in the literature on the most appropriate Australian measures of, and thresholds for, extreme heat regarding giving advice on safe sports participation in hot weather. The purpose of this paper is to present a process for investigating two common measures of heat (air temperature, wet bulb globe temperature (WGBT)) in one state in Australia (South Australia), regarding their usefulness in making decisions regarding sports participation in the heat. METHOD: Commonly reported measures and thresholds of extreme heat were identified from a systematic review of guidelines regarding sports participation in hot weather. Dry air temperature (threshold of 35 degrees C), and WBGT index (threshold of 28 degrees C) were highlighted. Repeated daily measures of dry air temperature by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and WBGT index from 12 meteorological recording sites in South Australia (SA) for four consecutive summer periods (2000-2004) were analysed using these thresholds to investigate the prevalence of extremely hot temperatures in SA during these periods. The extremely hot hours-per-day data were standardised using a denominator of per-day-month across the 12 SA recording regions. RESULTS: Across the four summer seasons of data in SA, there were similar standardised numbers of hours-per-day of extremely hot dry air temperature and WBGT index. There was a high correlation between these hours of hot weather measures, highlighting the congruence between hot air and humidity measures. Three distinct regional site groupings were identified, in which there was a different prevalence of extremely hot weather conditions. CONCLUSION: In SA, dry air temperature is an appropriate and robust measure of extreme heat related to sports participation, this measure providing as much information as WBGT in identifying extremely hot periods of weather. Dry air temperature can be readily measured by sports participants or officials irrespective of the geographical location in SA. Three SA regions demonstrated distinct differences in prevalence of extremely hot conditions, suggesting the need for site-specific interpretation of heat participation guidelines to ensure sports safety in hot weather. Other states in Australia could use the approach outlined in this paper to identify the most appropriate measure of extreme heat relevant to local conditions, and to assist in interpreting heat limit guidelines in a local context.

Improved methods for the isolation and study of the C18, C20 and C22 monoethylenic fatty acid isomers of biological samples: Hg adducts, HPLC, AgNO3-TLC/FID, and ozonolysis.

The monoethylenic isomers of C18, C20 and C22 chain lengths of the depot fat of a nonhominid primate (cynomolgus monkeys,Macaca fascicularis), fed a partially hydrogenated herring oil (IV=76.0) for 30 months, were examined by 2 different approaches. The first isolation method involved preparative gas liquid chromatography and argentation thin layer chromatography (TLC). The second sequence involved a chain-length fractionation system based on the TLC of the methoxy-bromomercuri quence involved a chain-length fractionation system based on the TLC of the methoxy-bromomercuri adducts of the total methyl esters to isolate groups of acids of common degrees of unsaturation, and then high performance liquid chromatography on a reverse-phase column. In both cases, the monoethylenic isomer distribution was determined by ozonolysis in BF3/MeOH. Comparable results were obtained with the 2 methods. The second approach is recommended for small biological samples, especially for those containing a relatively high proportion of di- and other polyethylenic isomers which might interfere.