Special Olympics athletes' ability to self-report health needs: Results from Healthy Athletes triage

Background: Special Olympics (SO) Healthy Athletes (HA) provides health screenings and referrals for follow-up care spanning six disciplines: podiatry, fitness, health promotion, audiology, vision, and dentistry. With limited time at HA, it is important to get athletes screened at the disciplines best matching their health needs. A triage system was piloted to test a method addressing this challenge. Methods: Ten nursing students administered a self-assessment questionnaire to 172 randomly selected athletes. Algorithms determined if an athlete should go to a specific discipline for further evaluation. Responses to the self-assessment were compared to HA screening results. Results: Athletes referred to the dentistry screening from triage had higher rates of mouth pain, tooth decay, and urgent treatment recommendations compared to non-referred athletes. These results suggest the questions asked for dentistry allowed SO athletes to accurately report their dental health needs. In other disciplines, self-assessment results did not match screening results. Other analyses revealed the importance of the questions. For example, 23 athletes reported being in pain when asked the generic question “do you have any pain?” When asked about specific locations (e.g. mouth), 51 athletes reported being in pain. Discussion: In five disciplines, the percentage of referred athletes attending was higher than the percentage of all athletes who went to that same discipline, suggesting that triage recommendations influence attendance at screenings. It is imperative to test a new version of the questionnaire to develop a triage process that enhances sensitivity and sends athletes to the disciplines that best match their health needs.