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Apr 19, 2022;10 (5):

COVID-19 Infection among Elite Football Players: A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study.

Dimitrios Papagiannis, Theodoros Laios, Konstantinos Tryposkiadis, Konstantinos Kouriotis, Xenophon Roussis, Georgios Basdekis, Panagiotis Boudouris, Christos Cholevas, Stergios Karakitsios, Pindaros Kakavas, Theoharis Kiriakidis, Panagiotis Kouloumentas, Georgios Kouvidis, Grigoris Manoudis, Pantelis Nikolaou, Christos Theos, Andreas-Nikolaos Piskopakis, Ioannis Rallis, Stavros Ristanis, Alexandros Toliopoulos, Grigoris Zisis, Yiannis Theodorakis, Konstantinos I Gourgoulianis, Georgios Rachiotis
Author Information
  1. Dimitrios Papagiannis: Public Health & Vaccines Lab, Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly Larissa, 411 10 Larissa, Greece. ORCID
  2. Theodoros Laios: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  3. Konstantinos Tryposkiadis: Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
  4. Konstantinos Kouriotis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  5. Xenophon Roussis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  6. Georgios Basdekis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  7. Panagiotis Boudouris: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  8. Christos Cholevas: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  9. Stergios Karakitsios: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  10. Pindaros Kakavas: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  11. Theoharis Kiriakidis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  12. Panagiotis Kouloumentas: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  13. Georgios Kouvidis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  14. Grigoris Manoudis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  15. Pantelis Nikolaou: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  16. Christos Theos: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  17. Andreas-Nikolaos Piskopakis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  18. Ioannis Rallis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  19. Stavros Ristanis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece. ORCID
  20. Alexandros Toliopoulos: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece. ORCID
  21. Grigoris Zisis: Super League Greece Mesogeion 174, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece.
  22. Yiannis Theodorakis: Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Thessaly, 382 21 Volos, Greece.
  23. Konstantinos I Gourgoulianis: Department of Respiratory Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, 411 10 Larissa, Greece.
  24. Georgios Rachiotis: Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 411 10 Larissa, Greece.
PMID: 35632390 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10050634

Abstract

Little is known about the risk of COVID-19 infection among footballers. We aimed to investigate the incidence and characteristics of COVID-19 infection among footballers. In total, 480 football players of Super League Greece and 420 staff members participated in a prospective cohort study, which took place from May 2020 to May 2021. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from footballers and staff members weekly. All samples (n = 43,975) collected were tested using the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for the detection of “SARS-CoV-2”. In total, 190 positive cases (130 among professional football players and 60 among staff) were recorded. Out of the 190 cases that turned positive, 64 (34%) cases were considered as symptomatic, and 126 (66%) cases were asymptomatic. The incidence rate of a positive test result for footballers was 0.57% (confidence interval (CI) 0.48−0.68%) and for staff members it was 0.27% (CI 0.20%, 0.34%), respectively. Footballers recorded a twofold increased risk of COVID-19 infection in comparison to staff members (relative risk = 2.16; 95% CI = 1.59−2.93; p-value < 0.001). No significant transmission events were observed during the follow-up period. We found a low incidence of COVID-19 infection among professional footballers over a long follow-up period. Furthermore, the implementation of a weekly diagnostic testing (RT-PCR) was critical to break the transmission chain of COVID-19, especially among asymptomatic football players and staff members.

Keywords

COVID-19 incidence professional footballers relative risk transmission

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Journal Article

Word Cloud

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