Preparticipation Examination of Athletes-Reply FREE

In Reply.—We agree with Dr Beasley that ideally the preparticipation physical examination of athletes should be done in private by their personal physician. In such situations an effective physician-patient relationship can be developed and age-appropriate riskfactor screening can be accomplished. The preparticipation examination then becomes one more step in the continuous care of the patient.

However, personal health care for adolescents is not always available or affordable, particularly in inner-city areas where large groups of athletes might be clustered. Furthermore, not all physicians are well trained for or interested in providing a preparticipation examination for athletes. It is in these situations that the station or group examination is an effective alternative. In fact, our study demonstrated that personal physicians found significantly fewer abnormalities and made fewer recommendations concerning previous injuries recorded on the health history than physicians in the station examination group. Also, in communities where there are inadequate