Sports participation entails a considerable risk of injury and prevention of health problems is an important goal for clinicians and researchers. A carefully designed injury and illness surveillance program, accurate data capture and careful analysis of data are building blocks for the implementation of prevention programs. We included in our narrative review papers addressing definitional issues and how to report data on injury and illness surveillance, papers addressing how to explore impact and effectiveness of surveillance procedures for sports injuries and illnesses and papers comparing different surveillance approaches. Different methods and approaches alongside key definitions and concepts on health problem surveillance have been proposed during the last 30 years trying to address the main features clinicians and researchers should adopt to conduct appropriate injury and illness surveillance. The literature suggests that the collection of a core set of variables including location, tissue and pathology type, relation to sports activity, mode of onset, mechanism, and severity is needed to conduct appropriate injury and illness surveillance. Definitions and modalities should be clarified at the beginning of the surveillance and data collection should be safe and on time.
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