Can A Sports Physical Replace A Wellness Exam?
August 6, 2024
Before your child can take the field or hit the courts, their doctor must give the all-clear for them to play.
Since the sports physical is a pre-requisite to organized activity, you may be tempted to skip your child’s annual well-visit. After all, do you really need to go to the doctor’s office twice if they’re healthy enough to play sports?
Of course, the answer is yes! Each type of visit to your pediatrician serves a different purpose, and one cannot replace the other.
Shoshana Gordon, D.O., a pediatrician for Henry Ford Health, explains the differences between the sports physical and regular wellness examination.
What Happens at a Wellness Exam
An annual wellness exam is a comprehensive visit that allows your child’s pediatrician to monitor all aspects of your child’s development. These appointments can vary quite a bit, depending on your child’s age.
“Your child grows so much early in life that we need to see them several times before their first birthday,” says Dr. Gordon. “As they get older, the conversations at these appointments evolve and expand to include topics like mental health and what to expect from puberty.”
Generally, many aspects of your child’s wellness exam will stay the same over time. Regardless of age, this appointment will include:
- Checking vitals (heart rate, blood pressure)
- A physical exam (to monitor physical growth)
- Discussing developmental milestones
- Developmental and emotional/behavioral screenings
- Conversations about nutrition and any physical activities your child is involved in
- Conversations about how your child is getting on at school
- An opportunity to discuss questions or concerns you or your child may have
One crucial part of the wellness exam is immunization. This appointment is the best time for you to talk with your child’s pediatrician to make sure that your child is up to date on necessary vaccines.
Additionally, wellness exams are the best way for you and your child to develop a relationship with their pediatrician. When you only take your child to the doctor when they are sick, it is harder for your pediatrician to set a baseline for their health.
“Regular wellness visits allow you and your child to get comfortable with asking your doctor questions,” says Dr. Gordon. “Once we develop a good patient-provider relationship, your child’s pediatrician will have an easier time recognizing when your child isn’t feeling like themselves and can better offer alternate approaches to care that best suit your child’s unique needs."
What Happens at a Sports Physical
Sports physicals are used to determine if your child is healthy enough to participate in organized sports. During this appointment, your child’s doctor will screen them for different sports-specific health concerns. They will be evaluating several things including:
- Heart function
- Lung function
- Mobility
- Reflexes
- Endurance
“During a sports physical, we’ll look at both your child’s and your family’s health history to make sure there aren’t any indicators that could impact your child’s ability to play,” says Dr. Gordon. “For example, if your child had COVID or if you have a family history of cardiovascular complications, additional tests may be necessary to make sure this isn’t affecting your child’s health.”
The biggest difference from a wellness exam? Sports physicals don’t include developmental screeners that are essential to your child’s growth.
“At the end of the day, a sports physical cannot take the place of your child’s annual wellness exam,” says Dr. Gordon. “However, when you go for your child’s wellness exam, talk to your child’s pediatrician about including a sports physical as part of the appointment.”
In addition to the developmental, social and emotional evaluations that take place at your child’s annual wellness exam, this is the best time for you and your child to get to know your pediatrician. Establishing yourself with your child’s doctor will make it easier to treat and care for your child as they continue to grow.
To find a sports medicine provider at Henry Ford Health, visit henryford.com/athletes or call 313-651-1969.
Dr. Shoshana Gordon is a pediatrician who sees patients at Henry Ford Medical Center-Royal Oak and Henry Ford Medical Center-Sterling Heights.
Survey Shows Multi-Sport Participation Holding Steady, Led by Consistent High Achievers
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 14, 2023
The MHSAA's fifth Multi-Sport Participation Survey, conducted this spring for the 2022-23 school year, showed for the second-consecutive year that 44 percent of athletes at member high schools participated in more than one sport, and with several schools retaining high rankings in their respective Classes for the percentage of their athletes playing multiple sports.
Early and intense sport specialization has become one of the most serious issues related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports, as overuse injuries and burnout among athletes have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life.
This past year’s survey showed 44.7 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools participating in two or more sports, a slight increase from the 44.3 percent who were multi-sport athletes in 2021-22 – and 1.9 percent higher than the percentage measured with the first survey in 2017-18.
For 2022-23, 47.5 percent of male athletes and 41.2 percent of female athletes played multiple sports. Class D has enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes over all five years of surveys, this time at 62.5 percent, followed by Class C (59.0), Class B (49.6) and Class A (36.9).
Similar results for overall sport participation and multi-sport participation relative to enrollment size were seen by further breaking down Class A into schools of fewer than 1,000 students, 1,000-1,500 students, 1,501-2,000 students and more than 2,000 students. For both sport participation as a whole and multi-sport participation specifically, the smallest Class A schools continued to enjoy the highest percentages, while percentages then decreased for every larger size group of schools. This has remained consistent over the last five surveys.
Since 2018-19, the survey also has shown a slight increase in three-sport athletes across all four Classes and overall with 12.6 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools playing at least that many in 2022-23.
In early 2016, the MHSAA appointed a Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation as part of a continued effort to promote and protect participant health and address the issues leading to early sport specialization. The annual Multi-Sport Participation Survey was among results of the task force’s work. The 2022-23 Multi-Sport Participation Survey received responses from 85.2 percent of member high schools, a few tenths more than in 2021-22 in setting a survey response record for the second-straight year. (No survey was conducted for 2019-20 as spring sports were canceled due to COVID-19.)
The MHSAA Task Force also recommended measuring multi-sport participation in MHSAA member schools to recognize “achievers” – that is, schools that surpass the norm given their enrollment and other factors that affect school sports participation.
Battle Creek Harper Creek, Detroit Cody and Grand Rapids Northview have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes four of the five years the survey has been conducted. Several more have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes three of the five years: Athens, Decatur, Detroit Douglass, East Grand Rapids, Gibraltar Carlson, Hamtramck, Hillsdale Academy, Holland Calvary, Kinross Maplewood Baptist, Livonia Franklin, Manton, Marquette, New Baltimore Anchor Bay, Ovid-Elsie, Parma Western, Warren Fitzgerald, Warren Lincoln and Warren Michigan Collegiate.
In Class A, Sterling Heights (85.7 percent) and Grand Rapids Union (84.0) posted the highest percentages of multi-sport athletes in 2022-23, with Livonia Franklin (73.1) and Battle Creek Harper Creek (71.3) also reaching 70 percent. In Class B, three schools achieved at least 80 percent multi-sport participation –Warren Michigan Collegiate (85.2), Detroit Cody (84.2) and Battle Creek Pennfield (81.5).
Class C saw eight schools reach 80 percent – Jackson Lumen Christi (92.5), Delton Kellogg (92.3), Decatur (86.2), Muskegon Western Michigan Christian (84.0), Indian River Inland Lakes (83.3), Detroit Crockett Midtown Science & Medicine (82.4), Martin (80.6) and LeRoy Pine River (80.0). Two Class D schools responded at higher than 90 percent multi-sport participation – Coldwater Pansophia Academy with 100 percent for the second-straight year and Carney-Nadeau (94.0) – followed by Brighton Livingston Christian (88.9), Carsonville-Port Sanilac (88.6) and Holland Calvary (87.0).
The full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey is available on the Multi-Sports Benefits page of MHSAA.com