Table 1

Incidence studies in general populations of atheltes

Author	Year	Country	Study design	Case identification	Denominator	Exertional deaths of all?	SCD or SCA+SCD	Years studied	Population	Incidence	Number of years	Age range	Mean age	Number of cardiac deaths
Van Camp21	1996	USA	Retrospective cohort	National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research and media database	17 most popular sports, participants in NCAA, NFHS, NAIA, NAJC, added together, conversion factor to account multisport athletes used ‘based on discussions with representatives from the national organisations’. 1.9 for high school and 1.2 for college	Exertional	SCD	1983–1993	College athletes and high school	1:300 000	10	17–24	17	100
Maron26	1996	USA	Retrospective cohort	US Registry for Sudden Death in Athletes	‘Unavoidable selection bias and certainly significantly underestimate’	All	SCD	1985–1995	Athletes	_	10	12–40	17	134
Maron25	2003	USA	Retrospective cohort	US Registry for Sudden Death in Athletes	Not possible b/c of selection bias	All	SCD	1985–2000	Athletes	_	25	9–40	17	286
Corrado22	2003	Italy	Prospective cohort study	Mandatory death reporting	Registered Italian athletes	All	SCD	1979–1999	Athletes and young people	1:47 600 athlete 1:142 900 young people	20	12 –35	23	55
Maron8	2009	USA	Retrospective cohort	US Registry for Sudden Death in Athletes	Estimated 10.7 million athletes <39 participating in sports during 2000–2006 (method not described)	All	SCA+SCD	1980–2006	Athletes	1:163 934	27	8–39	18	690
Holst6	2010	Denmark	Retrospective cohort	Review of death certificates—then autopsies if available—15 sports related SCD (SrSCD)	Denmark population statistics	All and sports related	SCD	2000–2006	Athletes and young people	1:82 645 SrSCD 1:26 595 general pop	7	12 –35	26	15 SrSCD 470 SCD
Steinvil23	2011	Israel	Retrospective cohort	Retrospective review of two Israeli newspapers by two media researchers	45 000 registered competitive athletes in 2009, extrapolated the growth of the Israeli population age10–40 since 1985 based on that figure and allowed for a presumed doubling of the sporting population	All	SCD	1985—19 971 998—2009	Athletes	1st—1:393 702nd—1:37 593	24	12–44	24	24

SCA, sudden cardiac arrest; SCD, sudden cardiac death.