You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 6, Issue 1
  • Haemoglobin, iron status and lung function of adolescents participating in organised sports in the Finnish Health Promoting Sports Club Study

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

XML
Short report
Haemoglobin, iron status and lung function of adolescents participating in organised sports in the Finnish Health Promoting Sports Club Study
  1. Kerttu Toivo1,2,
  2. Pekka Kannus1,
  3. Sami Kokko3,
  4. Lauri Alanko4,5,
  5. Olli J Heinonen6,
  6. Raija Korpelainen7,8,9,
  7. Kai Savonen10,11,
  8. Harri Selänne12,
  9. Tommi Vasankari2,
  10. Lasse Kannas3,
  11. Urho M Kujala3,
  12. Jari Villberg3,
  13. Onni Niemelä13,
  14. Jari Parkkari1,2,14
  1. 1 Tampere Research Center of Sports Medicine, Ukk Institute, Tampere, Finland
  2. 2 Ukk Institute for Health Promotion Research, Tampere, Finland
  3. 3 Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland
  4. 4 Clinic for Sports and Exercise Medicine, Helsingin Yliopisto, Helsinki, Finland
  5. 5 Department of Sports and Exercise Medicine, Central Finland Central Hospital, Jyvaskyla, Finland
  6. 6 Paavo Nurmi Centre & Unit for Health and Physical Activity, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
  7. 7 Department of Sports and Exercise Clinic, Oulu Deaconess Foundation, Oulu, Finland
  8. 8 Center for Life Course Health Research, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
  9. 9 Medical Research Center, University of Oulu and University Hospital of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
  10. 10 Kuopio Research Institute of Exercise Medicine, Kuopio, Finland
  11. 11 Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland
  12. 12 Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyvaskyla, Finland
  13. 13 Department of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Research Unit, Seinajoki Central Hospital and University of Tampere, Seinajoki, Finland
  14. 14 The Research Services, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
  1. Correspondence to Kerttu Toivo; kerttu.toivo{at}fimnet.fi

Abstract

Objectives To compare laboratory test results and lung function of adolescent organised sports participants (SP) with non-participants (NP).

Methods In this cross-sectional study, laboratory tests (haemoglobin, iron status), and flow-volume spirometry were performed on SP youths (199 boys, 203 girls) and their NP peers (62 boys, 114 girls) aged 14–17.

Results Haemoglobin concentration <120/130 g/L was found in 5.8% of SP and 5.1% NP (OR 1.20, 95% CI 0.54 to 2.68). Ferritin concentration below 15 µg/L was found in 22.7% of both SP and NP girls. Among boys ferritin <30 µg/L was found in 26.5% of SP and 30.2% of NP (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.40 to 1.47). Among SP iron supplement use was reported by 3.5% of girls and 1.5% of boys. In flow-volume spirometry with bronchodilation test, 7.0% of SP and 6.4% of NP had asthma-like findings (OR 1.17, 95% CI 0.54 to 2.54); those using asthma medication, that is, 9.8% of SP and 5.2% of NP were excluded from the analysis.

Conclusions Screening for iron deficiency is recommended for symptomatic persons and persons engaging in sports. Lung function testing is recommended for symptomatic persons and persons participating in sports in which asthma is more prevalent.

  • Iron metabolism
  • Asthma
  • Adolescent
  • Sports & exercise medicine
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2020-000804

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors All the authors contributed to the substance and design of the study. SK and JP compiled and collated the sections of the study. KT carried out the literature search. SK and JV collected and arranged the preliminary data. ON contributed to the laboratory analyses. KT and JV conducted the data analyses and all the authors participated in the interpretation of data. KT, PK and JP wrote the first draft of the paper and all authors provided substantive feedback on the paper and contributed to the final manuscript. All authors have approved the submitted version of the manuscript. JP acts as the guarantor.

    • Funding This study was financially supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture (major, grant number: 6/091/2011) and Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (minor, grant number: 152/THL/TE/2012).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication The adolescents and their guardians provided written consent to participate in the study, and the adolescents were told that they could retract their consent at a later date.

    • Ethics approval The study conforms to the declaration of Helsinki. A positive statement from the Ethics Committee of healthcare District of Central Finland was received (record number 23U/2012). Before the start of this study, we requested permission from all the sports clubs to take part. This permission was granted freely.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement The data may not be shared because permission was not requested from the participants or their parents.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.