Abstract
Introduction:
Coinciding with the London Olympics it has been widely reported that asthma is over represented in certain groups of athletes such as endurance runners and swimmers. In response to a number of players requiring on field treatment for asthma at a professional football club in London, England the first team squad was screened for unreported asthma and allergy.
Methods:
The AQUA questionnaire is a validated tool for screening for allergy in athletes (Bonini M et al Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012 44(6):999-1004) with a score of >5 defined as positive. An AQUA questionnaire was offered to the entire first team squad (29 players).
Results:
Of the 25 players who responded seven (28%) had a positive AQUA score (range 9-22). One player had a positive AQUA (score 9) with no previous allergy diagnosis, whilst three players who had previously been diagnosed with allergic illness had a negative AQUA score (κ = 0.635, SE 0.163). Nine players missed training at least once in the last year due to illness, all of whom were AQUA negative. Four players had a known diagnosis of asthma, but none had needed to use a reliever inhaler in the last week.
Conclusion:
There is good agreement between AQUA score and clinically diagnosed allergy. The AQUA screening tool added only one additional diagnosis, implying that there is not a significant burden of undiagnosed allergy at this club. There was no correlation between AQUA and missing training implying that allergy does not impact upon player’s ability to train.
We are yet to ascertain whether allergy impacts on training performance. We intend to follow this survey up with pre and post training spirometry and a clinical review of players with positive AQUA scores.
- © 2013 ERS