Students receive free sports physicals
AdventHealth physicians and the Bond Clinic teamed up with 10 high schools in East Polk County to provide free annual sports physicals to more than 1,000 student athletes, to make sure they are fit and healthy to participate in the upcoming sports seasons safely, according to a news release.
Providers checked blood pressure, offered complete muscular-skeletal exams and looked for issues such as heart murmurs, joint tenderness, and neck and back injuries at Davenport High School.
It is common to assume that children and young adults have healthy hearts because of their age, but it is 2.5 times more likely for sudden cardiac arrest to occur in young athletes than non-athletes, the release says.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes, occurs in one in every 500 people. A general exam, a look at family history and an ECG can help identify at-risk athletes.
If a family’s health history answers “yes” to any of the following questions, a further evaluation may be needed:
- Has your child ever fainted during exertion?
- Has your child ever experienced chest pain during exertion?
- Has anyone in your family ever died of sudden cardiac failure?
New children’s health bill introduced
U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL-12-R) and Marc Veasey (TX-33-D) introduced the Early Detection of Vision Impairments in Children (EDVI) Act, which will establish grants for states and communities to improve children’s vision and eye health through screenings, early interventions and coordinated systems of care, according to a news release.
Currently there is no federally funded program in the United States that specifically addresses children’s vision or that fosters a cohesive and integrated system of eye health for children, the release says.
Some common vision disorders in childhood are: amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (crossed eyes), myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness).
Under the EDVI Act, the Health Resources and Services Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will award grants and cooperative agreements for states and local communities to:
- Implement approaches for the early detection of vision concerns in children, referrals for eye exams and follow-up mechanisms
- Identify barriers in access to eye care and strategies to improve eye health outcomes
- Raise awareness about the importance of early interventions and screenings
- Establish a coordinate public health system for vision health and eye care diagnosis and treatment
- Develop state-based data collection, quality monitoring and performance improvement systems
Resources also will be made available through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide technical assistance and guidance to states and communities to implement children’s vision screening and early intervention programs.
