Supporting Families. Saving Lives.
The study was published last week in the journal Circulation, and shows that there is one sudden cardiac death for every 43,770 National Collegiate Athletic Association student-athletes each year. Earlier estimates, which relied almost exclusively on news reports for information, had put the number as low as 1 in 300,000.
The study drawas information from N.C.A.A. databases and insurance claims, as well as from news reports — examined sudden deaths from 2004 to 2008 among N.C.A.A. student-athletes ages 17 to 23.
The study found that certain students were at higher risk than others, including black athletes and Division I basketball players. The incidence of sudden cardiac death among black athletes was one in 18,000, possibly because of a higher prevalence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a leading cause of sudden cardiac death, in this population. Click here to see the research summary.