Rational сlassification of top-level athletes based on morbidity patterns

Purpose of the study: to study statistical data on the structure of diseases in participants of Russian national sports teams and to create a classification based on the prevalence of diseases in different sports.

Materials and methods: analysis of anonymized medical data of 15,464 participants of Russian national teams who underwent in-depth medical examination in the clinics of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency for the period 2021–2023. The data included various anthropometric, physiologic, and clinical characteristics of the athletes. Statistical processing and data visualization were performed using the R programming language.

Results: 6 classification clusters of sports were identified based on the analysis of the main groups of diseases most frequently encountered in top skill athletes. In each cluster, high incidence of diseases is specific to certain sports.

Conclusion: a classification of sports based on the prevalence of diseases in athletes of the national teams of the Russian Federation was developed. This classification approach can be the basis for the creation of individualized prevention and rehabilitation programs that take into account specific health risks associated with different sports.

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