The Development of a minimum data set to implement a national sports injury Registration system in Iran

Injury surveillance studies are essential factors in protecting the athlete's health. Minimum data set is a standard evaluation tool used during the data collection process to ensure that decision makers have access to a uniform set of information.  The purpose of this study was to create a set of minimum data to record a large number of sports injuries from community and amateur sports that can be used to develop a standard surveillance system in Iran.

The sport injuries minimum data set was developed through a four-stage process: 1. Systematic review, 2. Classification of the data elements, 3. Validation of the data elements using the Delphi technique, 4. Determination of the accessibility of data elements using focus group discussion.

A systematic review identified 1905 eligible articles that were relevant to the objectives of the study. From this number of articles 15 articles had all the inclusion and exclusion criteria and 101 data elements were subsequently extracted from these articles. The data elements were classified by five experts and validated by two rounds of a Delphi technique. The accessibility of the data elements was then evaluated during a focus group discussion. Finally, 86 data elements were selected as the minimum data set.

The proposed data set can be used as a standard tool for collecting sport injuries. This minimal data set can help information system designers to develop surveillance and registry systems.