Prevalence of skin disorders in athletes of 10 sport activities

Abstract

Participation in sport activities has become increasingly popular, as a result, more patients are referred 10 dermatologists for disorders caused by sport activities. During most forms of exercise, the skin and it's appendages are under constant assault by traumatic and other environmental factors that can cause injury. Physical activity also predispose s the skin to infection and can exacerbate a preexisting dermatosis. This is a cross _ sectional descriptive study of sport dermatologic disorders among athletes from Kerman who were members of sport _ clubs. 201 athletes in 10 fields of sport were selected by clustering. Control group were Kerman medical student s who were selected randomly, they exercise not too often , and they were not members of sports clubs. Dermatologic exam was done on both groups.Average age of involved athletes were 21.1 years old. Involved were 19 and control group were 21.2 years old. The prevalence of skin disease were more in athletes 38℅ than control group 11℅ ( p<0.01). Seven types of skin disorders were seen in athletes in frequency : 1_ callus, -2 Acne mechanics,.3- corn,4- Tinea versicolor,5- athlete,s nodules, 6- Tina pedis, 7- urticaria. Three types of skin lesions were observed in control group in order of frequency; 1- Corn, 2- Acne mechanics,3- Tinea versicolor. The average sport time was 4.9 years in unaffected cases and was 6.3 years in affected ones. Our results suggest higher prevalence of skin lesions in athletes. The prevalence of skin lesions increased with increasing in age and sport time. On the other hand, the prevalence of skin disorders in athletes using sport instrument s were 3.3 times more than one s who didn't use any sport instrument. It is needed to be concerned about dermatologic problems in athletes.