title: Cost-effectiveness of pre-participation screening of athletes with ECG in Europe and Algeria.
abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate the cost-effectiveness 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 cost-effectiveness 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 pre-participation screening of young athletes, especially in countries where secondary preventive care is not highly developed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy, dassanelli@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Deodato
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Assanelli
authors.forename: Rosella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Levaggi
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Carré
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Asterios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deligiannis
authors.forename: Klaus Peter
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Mellwig
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tahmi
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vinetti
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Aliverti
mesh_terms: D000462:Algeria; D056352:Athletes; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D013177:Sports; D013178:Sports Medicine / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*