Researchers say sports arenas lack vital emergency care
Major sporting events are filled with tension and nail-biting suspense that unfortunately could trigger heart attacks in vulnerable spectators. Adding to this concern is the fact that many sports arenas in Europe lack both procedures in place and the right equipment to save the lives of heart attack victims, new European research shows. The study's findings are published in the European Heart Journal. The researchers from Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK investigated 187 top sports arenas used by 190 leading football clubs in 10 European countries during the 2005/06 season. They distributed a 12-point questionnaire focusing on, among other things, the average numbers of spectators in the arenas during a full season, the availability of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), the number of emergency personnel present, and the average distance in time and kilometres to the nearest hospital. They found that over 25% of arenas studied had neither AEDs onsite nor medical action plans. Just as mind-boggling is the discovery that some of the arenas do not have basic or advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training programmes in place. According to the researchers, while no players or officials suffered a heart attack during the period investigated, 77 spectators did. The researchers estimated the incidence of such events at about 1 in 589,000 spectators. The problem must be addressed, they said, adding that urgent action is needed. 'Our study shows that many of these sports arenas are not adequately prepared to deal effectively with heart attacks among the spectators,' explained lead author Professor Mats Borjesson of Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. 'We believe that formal recommendations are needed urgently to improve safety for spectators and players. At the highest levels of sport, recommendations should be mandatory,' added Professor Borjesson who is also the head of the sports cardiology section of the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (EACPR). 'When you consider that our study was looking at what was probably the best-case scenarios - top clubs, with good resources - it would appear that the inadequate arrangements are due to a lack of attention being paid to safety procedures, rather than because of financial constraints. At present, there are no formal recommendations about cardiovascular safety procedures at sports arenas in Europe and there still appears to be a lack of knowledge in the non-medical part of the sport. Both education and recommendations in this regard are needed.' The researchers, who are club doctors, launched their investigation because they found differences in the level of cardiovascular care available at sports arenas. They also discovered that this problem had not been studied in particular in Europe. 'Our study confirms that spectators, in addition to the athletes, need adequate emergency medical procedures in place and, indeed, they could represent the primary target for cardiovascular safety programmes in sports arenas, because they outnumber the players,' Professor Borjesson said. Contributing to this study were experts from the Wellness International Medical Centre (UK), the Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), the Real Madrid Football Club (Spain), Diakonhjemmet Hospital (Norway) and the Institute of Sports Medicine and Science (Italy).
Countries
Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom