AUTHOR=Alhussaini Nour Waleed Zuhair , Elshaikh Usra Abushara Mohamed , Hamad Noor Ahmed , Nazzal Maisa Ayman , Abuzayed Manal , Al-Jayyousi Ghadir Fakhri 

TITLE=A scoping review of the risk factors and strategies followed for the prevention of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases during sports mass gatherings: Recommendations for future FIFA World Cups

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1078834

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.1078834

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=In 2022, the FIFA World Cup will be staged for the first time in the Middle East, in Qatar. It is imperative to identify how other countries dealt with various communicable diseases in the context of previous world cups and identify possible advice for protection from outbreaks. A scoping review was employed in this study and a PRISMA extension for scoping reviews was employed to guide the reporting of this study. A systematic search was performed using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, SCOPUS, SportDiscus, and Google scholar. The search strategy included two main strings viz “communicable disease” AND “sport” AND “setting” as keywords for each string. A total of 34 studies were included in this review. Information on risk factors for infectious diseases during FIFA, and recommendations for disease prevention in various stages of the event: pre-event, during, and post-event were charted. These strategies can be achieved with the empowerment of the public by enhancing their social responsibility and the coordination between the healthcare system, the ministry of public health, and other stakeholders. The findings will support planning for protection strategies to prevent any outbreak while having the FIFA World Cup 2022. A model was constructed to reflect on the findings of this review.