© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine
LEADER
Sudden death
Sudden death risk in older athletes: increasing the denominator
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Tunstall Pedoe
Cardiac Department, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, UK; dantpmardr@aol.com
Excluding the older athlete should be a last resort
Keywords: death risk; marathon running; older athletes
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Publicity and campaigning surrounding the tragedy of sudden death in young athletes (incidence 1 in 200 000 young athletes per year)1 has rather overshadowed the mortality risk of older competitors aged >30.
Population studies show that death rates during sports participation increase dramatically with age2 as the incidence of coronary heart disease increases. Is this just coincidental, or is the sport triggering the deaths? The highest overall mortality (numbers dying—"the numerator") is in recreational sports favoured by the middle aged and elderly, such as fishing and lawn bowls. This is because of the large numbers of participants and their lengthy exposure (time spent participating in the sport) ("the denominator") in assessing comparative risk. The latter will vary with different populations of participants.
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Lack of information about the denominator means that in most sports and recreational activity the exposure risk cannot be calculated and so compared. Collecting the death
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