An adapted Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Questionnaire on Health Problems (OSTRC-H2) for adolescents validated through cognitive interviews of South African athletes.

Objectives: Athlete self-reporting is a common approach for monitoring health problems in sports and the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Questionnaire on Health Problems v2 (OSTRC-H2) is a popular choice. The questionnaire was, however, not developed for adolescent athletes. This can limit the usefulness of the questionnaire in practice and compromise data quality in research studies.

Design: Adaptation of a self-report measure and qualitative data analysis.

Methods: Through cognitive interviews of South African athletes (seven boys and three girls, aged 10-18 years), we aimed to understand how adolescents comprehend the concepts included in the questionnaire and provide an adapted version of the OSTRC-H2 for adolescent athletes.

Results: Our findings indicated that although adolescents can provide relevant examples of injuries, illnesses and health problems, there is a variation in how these are understood. More severe health problems, and those with persisting symptoms at the time of responding, are more likely to be captured. Smaller, resolved and mental health problems are likely to be underreported. Not all concepts addressed in the questionnaire were fully comprehended by participants; these required text modifications and addition of specific examples.

Conclusions: Whilst we embed new definitions and additional examples in our adapted questionnaire, we highlight the importance of explaining the purpose of the questionnaire, and the problems it aims to capture, when distributed to young athletes. The version we provide may be considered appropriate for other adolescent populations elsewhere, however, we encourage researchers and practitioners to further validate the questionnaire prior to use.