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Tinea Gladiatorum and Dermatophyte Contamination Among Wrestlers and in Wrestling Halls: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

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Abstract

To present an overview of the existing epidemiological evidence regarding the occurrence of tinea gladiatorum in wrestlers and dermatophyte contamination in wrestling halls, five electronic databases including “PubMed,” “Scopus,” “Google Scholar,” “Science Direct,” and “Web of Science” were searched from inception to 30 December 2018. Studies focusing on epidemiology of dermatophytosis among wrestlers and on the presence of dermatophytes in wrestler hall were included. Data from 13 studies, 4818 wrestlers, and 391 wrestling mat samples from Turkey, Iran, and the USA (including a separate dataset for Alaska) were included. The prevalence of tinea gladiatorum in wrestlers varied from 2.4 to 90.62%, with the overall prevalence of 34.29% (95% CI 20.33–48.25). The prevalence of dermatophytes in wrestling halls varied from 0 to 56%, with the overall prevalence of 5% (95% CI 4‒7). The most frequent causative agent was Trichophyton tonsurans (875/951; 92%). The most common clinical feature of dermatophytosis among wrestlers was tinea corporis (62.2%). Meta-analysis indicated significant heterogeneity of all included studies (Q = 3204.72, P < 0.001, I2 = 99.6%). The publication bias evaluated using Egger’s test was negligible (P = 0.033). The current systematic review and meta-analysis are limited by the relatively low number of published studies on tinea gladiatorum and its prevalence among wrestlers. In Conclusion, the analysis revealed a relatively high prevalence of tinea gladiatorum among wrestlers, with a paucity of evidence on dermatophytes in wrestling halls.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support of Deputy of Research of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran (Grant No: 1146). The author would like to thank Prof. Macit Ilkit for valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Firoozeh Kermani & Zainab Bandalizadeh

  2. Health Science Research Center, Addiction Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Mahmood Moosazadeh

  3. Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Seyed Abdollah Hosseini

  4. Department of Health Information Technology, Amol Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Saeed Barzegari

  5. Invasive Fungi Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Tahereh Shokohi

  6. Department of Medical Mycology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, 18 Km Farahabad Road, Sari, 48471-91971, Iran

    Tahereh Shokohi

Authors
  1. Firoozeh Kermani
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  2. Mahmood Moosazadeh
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  3. Seyed Abdollah Hosseini
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  4. Zainab Bandalizadeh
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  5. Saeed Barzegari
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  6. Tahereh Shokohi
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Contributions

All authors conceived the study. FK, SAH, ZB, and SB screened the articles and abstracted the data. FK reviewed identified papers and selected those matching inclusion criteria, coordinated the data extraction, assessed risk of bias. FK, SAH, and TS performed the data extraction and drafted the manuscript. MM assisted in performing the statistical analysis. TS critically reviewed the revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tahereh Shokohi.

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Kermani, F., Moosazadeh, M., Hosseini, S.A. et al. Tinea Gladiatorum and Dermatophyte Contamination Among Wrestlers and in Wrestling Halls: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Curr Microbiol 77, 602–611 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-019-01816-3

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