Athlete age and sports physical examination findings.

BACKGROUND

Interscholastic and intercollegiate athletes commonly visit physician offices to have sports participation examinations (PPEs). Few data exist, however, to help determine the age range for which such examinations are reasonable. The purpose of this study was to determine the percentage of athletes with significant findings on sports PPEs among junior high school, high school, and college-age athletes.

METHODS

Analyses were made of 937 consecutive PPEs that were performed by primary care physicians using a standardized form. Subjects were interscholastic athletes of junior high, high school, and college age. Significant findings were defined as those that resulted in any recommendation, ie, change in management, by the examining physician.

RESULTS

The incidence of significant findings was 3.4% for the junior high school athletes, 15.4% for high school athletes, and 33.9% for college athletes (P < .001). The overall percentage of athletes disqualified from participating in any sport, which was 1.7%, did not differ significantly across age levels.

CONCLUSIONS

In this sample, college and high school athletes were much more likely than junior high school athletes to have significant findings on sports. PPEs. These data cast uncertainty on the necessity of annual PPEs to screen athletes of junior high school age.