SynthesisSports medicine - open2025
Pre-Participation Evaluation of Recreational and Competitive Athletes - A Systematic Review of Guidelines and Consensus Statements.
Synthesis in Sports medicine - open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sports Preparticipation Evaluation for Healthy Adults: A Consensus-Based German Guideline.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Guideline
- Cardiovascular Screening and Clearance Pathways for Recreational Athletes: Beyond the Elite.JACC. Case reports · 2026Article
- An International Physical Exercise Screening Questionnaire (IPESQ).International journal of emergency medicine · 2026Review
- Article
- Role of Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in the Monitoring of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Athletes - State-of-the-Art Review.Vascular health and risk management · 2026Review
- Sports Pre-Participation Evaluation in Healthy Adults-A Survey-Based Assessment of Guideline Acceptability and Feasibility Among Sports Physicians and Participants.Clinical and public health guidelines · 2025Article
- Pre-participation Evaluation in Recreational High-Intensity Sports: A Literature Review.Cureus · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPre-participation evaluation (PPE) aims to support safe participation in sports. The goal of this systematic review was to aggregate evidence- and consensus-based recommendations for the PPE of recreational or competitive athletes as preparation for developing a German guideline on this subject.
methodsFive databases, including MEDLINE, were searched in August 2022, complemented by searches on the websites of relevant guideline organisations and specialty medical associations and citation screening. We included guidelines/consensus statements with recommendations for PPE of adult recreational athletes or competitive athletes of any age, excluding those with certain chronic illnesses. We extracted and synthesised data in a structured manner and appraised quality using selected domains of the AGREE-II tool.
resultsFrom the 6611 records found, we included 35 documents. Overall, the quality of the included documents was low. Seven documents (20%) made recommendations on the entire PPE process, while the remainder focussed on cardiovascular screening (16/35, 45.7%) or other topics. We extracted 305 recommendations. Of these, 11.8% (36/305) applied to recreational athletes and 88.2% (269/305) applied to athletes in organised or competitive sports. A total of 12.8% (39/305) of recommendations were directly linked to evidence from primary studies.
conclusionMany recommendations exist for PPE, but only a few are evidence based. The lack of primary studies evaluating the effects of screening on health outcomes may have led to this lack of evidence-based guidelines and contributed to poor rigour in guideline development. Future guidelines/consensus statements require a more robust evidence base, and reporting should improve. REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42022355112.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.