Background The importance of a standardised injury and illness surveillance system in elite sports has recently often been highlighted. The OSTRC Questionnaire on Health Problems was developed and validated at the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre in Norway and showed very good validity.

Objective The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre Questionnaire on Health Problems into the German context.

Design A slightly modified back-translation method was used to translate the questionnaire. Validation was done in 24 high-level Paralympic athletes followed over 20 consecutive weeks.

Setting Web-based weekly distribution of the translated OSTRC questionnaire for 20 weeks.

Patients (or Participants) 24 athletes of the German National Cycling Team.

Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) None.

Main Outcome Measurements internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha) test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient), weekly response rate, lost training-days, Incidence of illness or injury.

Results The translated version of the questionnaire showed a very high internal consistency and good test-retest reliability (Cronbach's Alpha 0.92, ICC 0.91). Additionally, we observed high acceptance and compliance from our cohort of athletes, whose mean weekly response rate was 91.5%. Overall, 114 training-days were lost because of illness or injury within the 20 weeks. On average, five athletes per week (20.8%) reported health problems.

Conclusions This study demonstrates that the translated German version of the OSTRC Questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool with high internal consistency for the medical monitoring of German athletes. The OSTRC-G now offers the opportunity for a continued surveillance of high-level German athletes.