Medical Problems Detected During Pre-participation Physical Evaluation of School Athletes in the Galle District

Abstract

In Sri Lanka, four athletic deaths were reported in 2013. All four deaths took place while participating in school marathon competitions and the victims were teenaged school children. The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education took steps to temporarily remove marathon events from school athletic competitions in 2014. Three more athletic deaths were reported after the marathon events were resumed in 2015 which led to the development of guidelines in conducting Pre-Participation Physical Examination (PPE) for school athletes. There were no further deaths reported since the implementation of these guidelines.

In the present study on 2000 school athletes, 11% had potential problems which, if undetected, may have led to morbidity and mortality. Thirty (1.5%) had cardiovascular abnormalities, 240 (12%) had respiratory and 140 (7%) suffered from musculoskeletal problems. There were no reported school athlete deaths during sports events after implementation of PPE, which illustrates the success of conducting PPE.