Exercise-induced airway symptoms in young athletes; a follow-up from first to third year in sports high school

Abstract

Adult elite athletes have a higher prevalence of exercise-induced airway symptoms than the general population and it is more common among female athletes than male. Studies on the prevalence of these symptoms in early-career athletes are scarce.

We studied the prevalence of exercise-induced wheeze and dyspnoea in high school athletes, over a two year period, by inviting a cohort (n=272) to answer a questionnaire at age 16 and again at age 18.

At age 16 the prevalence of wheeze was 20.5% and dyspnoea 30.1%, and at age 18 the corresponding figures were; wheeze 18.2% and dyspnoea 21.8%. In comparison with 18-year-olds from the general population (1), the high school athletes reported more wheeze (18.2% vs 12.4% p=0.02).

At age 16, more female athletes reported wheeze and dyspnea compared with males (29.5 vs 12.4% p=0.001 and 43.2 vs 16.8% p<0.001). Two years later, no gender difference was found regarding wheeze, but more females reported dyspnoea, compared with males (28.3 vs 16.5% p=0.02). The prevalence of dyspnoea among females did however decrease with age (43.2 vs 28.3% p=0.005). This was mainly due to less reported dyspnoea, over the two year period, in females with current asthma (86.4 vs 54.5% p=0.008). In male athletes, the prevalence of both symptoms was similar over time.

High school athletes have a higher prevalence of exercise-induced wheeze compared with the general population. A larger proportion of female athletes report exercise-induced symptoms compared with their male peers but this difference seems to decrease with age.

1. Johansson H, et al. Respir Med. 2019;154:76-81.