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Study: Practices to prevent exertional heat stroke events need improvement

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Kerr Z. Am J Sports Med. 2014;doi:10.1177/0363546513502940

There is a low prevalence of the implementation of evidence-based management strategies in the effort to prevent exertional heat stroke among high school athletes, according to recently published data.

“There is an urgent need for improved education and awareness of exertional heat stroke (EHS) in high school football,” Zachary Y. Kerr, MPH, MA, and colleagues wrote in the study.

Using a self-administered, cross-sectional survey of 1,583 athletic trainers, Kerr and colleagues found that the risk of EHS is highest in football, more so during the preseason. Overall, 20.3% of athletic trainers treated at least one EHS event and 16.3% of respondents treated one to three EHS events. Four percent of the athletic trainers reported treating three or more EHS events, and nine trainers treated 10 or more EHS events during the 2011 football preseason. Six high school football players and one coach were believed to have died due to EHS in 2011.

Seven states presently have mandatory preseason heat acclimation guidelines for EHS prevention, according to the study. The researchers found athletic trainers in the states with the guidelines used management strategies more often than athletic trainers who are states without guidelines. These strategies include cooling an athlete through air conditioning (90.1% vs. 65%), immersion in ice water (63% vs. 45.4%), or fans (54.3% vs. 42%) and monitoring an athlete’s temperature (60.5% vs. 46.2%).

Disclosure: Kerr was funded by The Society for Public Health Education/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Student 2012 Fellowship in Injury/Violence Prevention and Control.