In this month’s column, I will address the importance of pre-participation sports physicals for children and the role they play in helping to limit injuries caused by involvement in organized sports. Pre-participation sport physicals are yearly physical exams required prior to the start of the sports season that allows a physician to medically clear a child or teenager to participate in a sport.
According to the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C., nearly 30 million children in the United States participate in organized sports programs. These numbers are only increasing and will likely mean a continual increase in the amount of sports injuries. Statistics show that one-third of all children will sustain an injury while playing sports that is severe enough to be treated by a doctor or nurse. Not only do these injuries cause physical harm, but they can also be very expensive. The yearly cost of these injuries is estimated to be as high as $1.8 billion.
Some of the most popular sports are football, basketball and baseball. These sports are known to have a high risk of injury. In football, the most talked-about injury is a concussion; in basketball it is injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL); and in baseball; it is injury to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). The most common injured parts of the body are the ankle, knee, hand, wrist, elbow, shin, calf, head, neck and clavicle.
The purpose of the pre-participation physical is to help identify issues in a child’s current health state that would cause their participation in a sport to result in life-threatening injuries. By taking preventive measures to ensure children are healthy enough to participate, we can greatly limit the amount of severe injuries sustained in these organized sports. The goal at the pre-participation physical is to detect conditions that may cause an injury to occur and to detect conditions that may be life-threatening or disabling.
As a physician, we want to know if anyone in the child’s family has died suddenly at a young age, especially while exercising, if there is sickle cell disease or other blood disorders in the family, or if other possible conditions exist that could be inherited.
The exam will include a measurement of height, weight, blood pressure and pulse. A physician will do a thorough physical exam, including an evaluation of the head, eyes, ears, heart, lungs, stomach, muscles, genitourinary system and bones to look for any problems that may make it difficult for a child to participate in sports.
As participation in sports activities continue to increase so will the risk of injury. Allowing for pre-participation physicals is one way you can limit these injuries, along with finding ways to make sports safer by creating better rules, safer equipment, and educating coaches and referees on how to treat injuries when they occur.
If you have a child who wants to participate in a sports program, please schedule a visit with a pediatrician or primary care physician. Eskenazi Health offers excellent pre-participation physicals. Eskenazi Health can also provide treatment to children who have suffered a sports-related injury and ensure the child’s injury heals properly and it is safe for them to return to the playing field. To find a doctor, please call Eskenazi Health at 880-8687.
Nydia Nuñez-Estrada, M.D.
Family Medicine
Eskenazi Health Center North Arlington