Prevention & lipidsCohort study
Pre-participation screening in competitive athletes in Italy: an analysis of real-world practice from a large database
- Retrospective cohort study
- 26 sports medicine centres
- consecutive pre-participation screening (PPS) 2018-24
- 30 sports physicians
Authors' conclusion
The prevalence of abnormal findings rose progressively with age, especially in master athletes. Sport physicians showed considerable differences in defining abnormal ECGs.
Study context
- Population
- Competitive athletes undergoing pre-participation screening (PPS) in Italy, 2018–24111,062 PPS
- Participants
- 61,731 athletes
- Exposure
- Young vs adult vs master athletes
- Outcome
- Outcomes and resource utilization of PPS
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
PPS outcomes
Further investigations required
Cardiac diagnoses
| Outcome | Young | Adult | Master |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average cost per PPS (first- and second-line) | €60 | €62 | €107 |
- Cleared after normal first-line investigation
- 102 646 (92.4%)
- Required one or further investigations
- 8416 (7.6%)
- Disease or condition at risk
- 378 (0.34%)
- Further investigations across age subgroups
- P = 0.001
- Cardiac diagnoses across age subgroups
- P = 0.001
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Abnormal ECG rate per physician prompting second-line investigation
- Range
- 0 to 7.1%
- Median (IQR)
- 1.5% (0.7-2.1%)
Original publication
Pre-participation screening in competitive athletes in Italy: an analysis of real-world practice from a large database. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 29 July 2025. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf454
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it