Emergency response management and outcomes of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest patients at exercise and sport facilities in Queensland, Australia

Sekendiz, B ORCiD: 0000-0002-5657-0008Aim: In the event of an out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest (OHSCA), timely cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and utilisation of an automated external defibrillator (AED) are crucial to increase the chances of survival. This study aims to analyse the emergency response management and outcomes of OHSCA patients at exercise and sport facilities (ESF) in Queensland, Australia. Methods: The de-identified electronic OHSCA data was obtained from the Queensland Ambulance Services (QAS) for the eight year period between 2007 and 2015. The data was systematically extracted, coded and categorised before statistical analysis. Results: There were 250 OHSCA cases at ESF after exclusions (e.g. vehicle trauma, home, <18 years old) key word search by type of sports. Potential cases were manually reviewed by street address for relevance. The OHSCA patients had a mean age of 59.39 (±15.169) and were mostly male (n=187, 86.6%). Following paramedic’s arrival and treatment, 38.8% (n=97) of the OHSCA patients improved, while 32.4% (n= 81) died mostly on the scene (25.2%, n=63). On-arrival, 75.6% (n=189) of the OHSCA patients were being applied CPR by the bystanders that was associated with 6.8% more improvement of the patients compared to no CPR by the bystanders. However, effective CPR (38%, n=95) was associated with 13.6% more improvement of the patients than non-effective CPR (62%, n=155) by the bystanders. Only at 12.4% (n=31) of the ESF both CPR and AED were applied by the bystanders that was associated with 4% less deaths than CPR only. Conclusions: These findings show that emergency management of cardiac events at ESF in Queensland are suboptimal. This study has implications for ESF operators to revise their risk management programs including medical emergency plans and procedures, and ensure they have staff currently trained in CPR and use of an AED to be capable of properly responding to an unexpected SCA event

How to improve quality of pre-exercise screening in the fitness industry?

Sekendiz, B ORCiD: 0000-0002-5657-0008Background: In Australia, more people with increasingly complicated health risks are using fitness facilities to improve their health and wellbeing. Therefore, it is crucial for fitness facilities to ensure the safety of their customers by properly utilising best practice pre-exercise screening procedures. Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the quality of pre-exercise screening in the fitness industry, and explore solutions to the identified problems from the perspective of fitness professionals

Utilisation of formative peer-assessment in distance online education: a case study of a multi-model sport management unit

Sekendiz, B ORCiD: 0000-0002-5657-0008Higher education system has been globally evolving over time with the development of courses that offer distance online models of delivery to meet the changing needs of students in an era of technology-driven transformation. However, one of the biggest challenges of distance online education has been higher attrition rates mostly due to difficulties in engaging the students in the learning process adequately. In this regard, peer-assessment has been recommended in the literature as an interactive method to optimise student engagement and learning in collaborative environments. This study demonstrates how formative peer-assessment was utilised in an online multi-model sport management unit to enhance engaged learning outcomes. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Grou

Emergency preparedness in the health and fitness facilities in Queensland

Sekendiz, B ORCiD: 0000-0002-5657-0008Introduction: The Australian health/fitness industry is an important contributor to the national preventative public health strategy against obesity and associated health risk factors such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, various forms of cancer, osteoporosis and mental health problems (Commonwealth of Australia, 2010; Mathers et al., 2000). Although regular physical activity can significantly reduce obesity and associated health risk factors, epidemiological studies show that vigorous exercise can trigger cardiac events, especially in habitually sedentary people with known or unknown coronary artery disease (Corrado et al., 2006b). In this regard, the aim of this study was to investigate if the health and fitness facilities in Queensland comply with risk management practices related to emergency plans such as cardiovascular screening, emergency procedures and the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as described in published international standards. Methodology: The data was gathered from the managers of all health/fitness facilities in Queensland (n=262) using the self-developed Health and Fitness Industry Risk Management Questionnaire (HFRMQ) (α= .87). Overall, 52 health/fitness facility managers participated in the study yielding a %20 return rate. Descriptive statistics and Spearman`s correlation were conducted for the data analysis using PASW Statistics 18. Results: The results of the study showed that the health and fitness facilities in Queensland show low compliance with emergency related risk management practices (mean=3.5±.616). Even though, the majority of the health/fitness facilities (78.8%) have a written emergency plan in place (mean=4.04±.989), neither these facilities revise their emergency plans (mean=2.54±.999), nor physically rehearse their emergency response systems at regular intervals (mean=2.63±1.205). Besides, only 19% of the health/fitness facilities have at least one AED installed (mean=2.35±1.282) while only 15.4% of their staff recruited to use the AED in case of emergency hold current AED training and certificate (mean=3.61± .916). Discussion and Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the need for proper adaptation and implementation of risk management practices related to emergency plans in the health and fitness facilities in Queensland. In this regard, a policy development and regulation of the health/fitness industry to implement proper risk management programs including but not limited to emergency procedures, processes and use of AEDs so as to promote physical activity in reasonably safe facilities is suggested

FIT for KIDS: Risk management for health/fitness facilities

Sekendiz, B ORCiD: 0000-0002-5657-0008Health/fitness facilities present invaluable opportunities to help children get the necessary amount and types of exercise to achieve health benefits and develop healthy habits that they can carry into adulthood. However, children are accepted to lack the cognitive maturity to avoid danger and may exhibit unreasonable "risk-taking" behaviors in health/fitness facilities. This increases adults` responsibility to prevent accidents when children are present. Therefore, health/fitness service providers should act with greater care toward children than they would toward another adult. When health/fitness facilities are offering their services to children, there are some key risk management practices that they should implement as part of a comprehensive risk management program

Incidence of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest at exercise and sport facilities in Queensland, Australia

Sekendiz, B ORCiD: 0000-0002-5657-0008Aim: Exercise and sport facilities (ESF) contribute to the preventive health policy of the governments by helping people to be more physically active. Hence, vigorous exercise can be a trigger for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in people with known or hidden cardiovascular conditions. The aim of this study was to analyse the incidence rate (IR) of out-of-hospital SCA (OHSCA) at ESF in Queensland, Australia. Methods: The de-identified electronic OHSCA data was obtained from the Queensland Ambulance Services (QAS) for the eight year period between 2007 and 2015. The data was systematically extracted, coded and categorised before statistical analysis. The OHSCA incidence rating (IR) for each type of ESF was standardised per 10,000 participants according to user data in Queensland obtained from the Australian Bureau Statistics (2012). Results: There were 250 OHSCA cases in ESF after exclusions (e.g. vehicle trauma, home, <18 years old) and key word search by type of sport. Potential cases were manually reviewed by street address for relevance. Most of the SCA patients were male (n = 187, 86.6%) and aged ≥65 (n=91, 42.1%). The top five risk sites for OHSCA were motorsports clubs (IR=8.5), lawn-bowls clubs (IR=7.1), squash centres (IR=4), golf clubs (IR=2.9), and tennis clubs (IR=1.9). Conclusions: The ESF operators have a duty to ensure the health/safety of their participants by implementing medical emergency plan (MEP) and procedures that include timely recognition, calling emergency medical services, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and early defibrillation when a cardiovascular event occurs. This study has policy implications for the ESF and sport governing organisations to revise their MEP and identify their need to utilise automated external defibrillators (AED) that can help to improve SCA outcomes. References: Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation, 2011-12. Table Builder, Secure Web Log-in. Findings based on use of ABS Microdata

An analysis of injury risks associated with yoga: A silent time bomb?

Sekendiz, B ORCiD: 0000-0002-5657-0008Background: Yoga is not only a popular type of recreational physical activity globally, but also is recognised as a natural therapy in Australia to improve fitness, health, and wellbeing. Despite the notion that yoga is a “low intensity activity” such as strolling at a pace of <3kph, results of a recent nationwide survey of yoga practitioners in Australia have shown alarming number of injuries. The aim of this study is to profile the yoga related emergency department (ED) presentations between July 2009 and June 2014 in Victoria. Methods: The Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) was used as the source of ED presentations between July 2009 and June 2014. Cases were selected on the basis that the text narrative describing the injury event included the term ‘yoga’. Cases were manually checked for relevance. Cases were restricted to those presenting for the first time for the episode. Results: There were 66 recorded ED presentations for yoga-related injuries during the five-year period. More than half of cases occurred in the 20-39 year age group (n=39, 59%) and females (n = 51, 77%).The body regions most frequently affected were the lower extremity (n=29, 44%) followed by the upper extremity (n=16, 24%) and the trunk (n=8, 12%).The most frequent injury types were dislocations/sprains/strains (n=31, 47%), fractures (n=12, 18%) and injury to muscle and tendon (n=7, 11%). Of the 47 cases with a specified place of injury location 36% occurred in the home (n = 17) and 19% occurred in sports and athletics areas (n=9). Discussion: The findings suggest that yoga can cause serious injuries, including some with a high personal cost with 8% of the ED cases subsequently admitted or transferred to another hospital for further treatment. Even though, yoga has been a part of the health and fitness industry in Australia for decades, it is unregulated and unstandardized. This study supports the need for future nationwide research to identify the risk management issues and practices in the yoga industry to minimise the risk of injuries and subsequent risk of legal liability for the yoga service providers

An examination of waiver usage and injury-related liability claims in health/fitness facilities in Australia

Sekendiz, B ORCiD: 0000-0002-5657-0008Under Australian law, recreational service providers can use exclusion (exculpatory) clauses in their service contracts to diminish legal liability for personal injury or death due to negligence. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the use (i.e., development and administration) of liability waivers, (b) the number of liability claims stemming from injuries, and (c) the types and locations of injuries occurring in health/fitness facilities in Queensland, Australia. The data were collected using a cross-sectional risk management survey of health/fitness facilities. Fifty-two health/fitness facility managers responded to the survey. The results indicated that waiver forms were used at all of the health/fitness facilities participating in the study. In addition, there were a total of 28 legal claims filed against the health/fitness facilities (19%, n = 10) for orthopedic injuries that were predominantly settled out of court. The findings suggest that health/fitness facilities should develop and implement comprehensive risk management programs to reduce the risk of injuries and subsequent liability claims