Epidemiology Of Sudden Death In American Youth Sports

Abstract

Little epidemiological data on the incidence of injury and sudden death in American youth sport exists. PURPOSE: Describe the epidemiology of sudden death (SD) in organized American youth sport. METHODS: SD surveillance was conducted from 8/1/2011 to 10/27/2016 via LexisNexis and other publicly available news or media reports. A certified athletic trainer reviewed each case to confirm the official cause of SD and/or offer a speculated cause of SD if official cause was unknown. Cases of SD that occurred in youth athletes 17 years of age and younger in organized sports were included. Cases of athletes at the high school level or higher were excluded. Details of the athlete (age, gender, level of play), event (sport, event type, activity), and death (date of incident, date of death, location of death, official and speculated cause of death) were examined. RESULTS: From 2007-2015, 45 SDs (average = 5 deaths/yr) were reported in American youth sports. The age range of SD was from 8-17 years old. The mean age of SD was 13 ± 2 years old. The overall incidence rate was 0.23 deaths/100,000 participants. The deadliest year was 2015 with 11 cases. When broken down into three-year segments, 6 SDs occurred from 2007-2009, 16 from 2010-2012, and 23 from 2013-2015. From 2007-2015, males experienced a greater number of SD compared to females (n=36, 80% of all deaths). Basketball had the highest number of SDs from 2007-2015, with a total of 16 occurrences. The most frequent cause of SD was cardiac-related (n=34, 76% of all deaths). Furthermore, 15 of the 16 basketball deaths (94%) were cardiac related. CONCLUSIONS: From 2007-2015 45 youth athletes died while playing organized sport, with an increasing number of SDs in more recent years. Males experienced a greater number of SDs than females. The sport and condition with the greatest SDs were basketball and cardiac-related SDs, respectively. With an overall incidence of 0.23 SDs/100,000 participants, these rates are on par with reported high school SD rates from 2007-2014 school years as reported by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research (average=0.24/100,000). This study sets a precedent for further examination into youth sport SD and supports the need for mandated health and safety guidelines in this population.