Game of chance - Aborigines who play Australian Rules Football run greater risk of heart attack than others

New Internationalist, Sept, 1999

Aboriginal Australians who play Australian Rules football are more likely to die of a heart attack than people playing any other aerobic sport. One in 5,000 of these players will die each year of heart problems on the field or shortly after a game-ten times higher than the incidence of heart attacks in sport. The popular game can transfer the ball more than 160 metres from one end of the pitch to the other in a matter of seconds; the ball is caught, tossed and kicked often around 50 metres up into the air. `It's both aerobic, requiring a high oxygen intake, and requires a physical toughness you don't get with soccer,' says Mark Young of the Australian Institute of Sport. The rate of sudden cardiac death among Aboriginal players in the tropical Northern Territory is 40 times greater than for the mostly white players of Victoria. The difference is partly attributed to the fact that Aboriginal Australians are 5.5 times more likely to die of heart attacks than white Australians. But extreme conditions of heat and alcohol consumption the night before a match increase the risk for Aboriginal players, according to Young who advocates players be screened for cardiovascular problems and educated about the risk of smoking, excessive drinking and undertaking sport in hot weather.

New Scientist Vol 162 No 2189