Caring for umpires, officials, and referees

Umpires, referees, and sports officials have not been accorded the same attention as athletes by the sports medicine community. The physical and psychological demands of their jobs expose them to a unique constellation of medical, psychological, and orthopedic problems. Likewise their age, fitness level, and disease risk factors may warrant closer scrutiny for them and greater need for participation evaluation than the athletes with whom they share the field. Limited medical literature is published regarding the care of sports officials, even though they have a higher incidence of medical problems, cardiovascular risk, and orthopedic injuries than sports participants.