Prevalence of hot weather conditions related to sports participation guidelines: a South Australian investigation
Date
2006
Authors
Grimmer, K.
King, E.
Larsen, T.
Farquharson, T.
Potter, A.
Sharpe, P.
de Wit, H.
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Journal article
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Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2006; 9(1-2):72-80
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Abstract
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 °C), and WBGT index (threshold of 28 °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.
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.
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Copyright 2006 Sports Medicine Australia