Cost-effectiveness of pre-participation screening of athletes with ECG in Europe and Algeria

The aim of this study is to evaluate the costeffectiveness
of ECG in combination with family and
personal history and physical examination in order to
detect cardiovascular diseases that might cause sudden
death in athletes. The study was conducted on a cohort of
6,634, mainly young professional and recreational athletes,
1,071 from Algeria and 5,563 from Europe (France, Germany
and Greece). Each athlete underwent medical history,
physical examination, and resting 12-lead ECG. 293
athletes (4.4 %), 149 in Europe (2.7 %) and 144 in Algeria
(13.4 %) required further tests, and 56 were diagnosed with
cardiovascular disease and thus disqualified. The costeffectiveness
ratio (CER) was calculated as the ratio
between the cost of screening and the number of statistical
life-years saved by the intervention. The estimated reduced
risk of death deriving from treatment or disqualification
resulted in the saving of 79.1 statistical life-years in Europe
and 136.3 in Algeria. CER of screening was 4,071 purchasing-
power-parity-adjusted US dollars ($PPP) in Europe
and 582 $PPP in Algeria. The results of this study
strongly support the utilisation of 12-lead ECG in the preparticipation
screening of young athletes, especially in
countries where secondary preventive care is not highly
developed.