
Besides the obvious physical benefits, youth sports provide social interaction that also can strengthen mental health. But most sports require close contact and interaction among athletes. Amid the COVID-19 setting, this poses a dilemma.
Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (0:59) is in the downloads at the end of this post. Please "Courtesy: Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.
The youth sports playing field has changed significantly in 2020.
"Sports do require oftentimes close contact, sharing of equipment and other things that do pose risks. How do we do that in the safest way possible I think is the million-dollar question," says Dr. David Soma, a Mayo Clinic pediatrician who specializes in sports medicine.
Dr. Soma says sports provide valuable mental and physical benefits for kids, but the COVID-19 pandemic is a whole new ballgame.
"If we are going to have kids play sports, we need to really strongly encourage a lot of those social safety measures: social distancing, hand hygiene, masking when possible."
He also recommends screening athletes for COVID-19 symptoms before practices and games. And if an athlete has recovered from COVID-19 …
... "There's a lot of discussion right now about the potential development of heart complications following COVID-19 infection, and that when they go back to sports, there could be a risk. I think that we need to just be monitoring that very carefully," says Dr. Soma.
Dr. Soma says limiting the number of people at events and masking everyone on the sidelines and in the stands is also important.
Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date.
For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.
You're getting to the gym regularly. Meeting your friends for a walk around the block. Maybe aerobics class is your go-to exercise. But is your ...
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Senescence is an aspect of aging that involves a biological dysfunction that occurs in response to repetitive stressors. Biological aging is associated ...
World TB Day will be observed Friday, March 24, which makes this a good time to learn about this potentially serious infectious disease. In 2021, 7,882 cases ...