Growth and sport

In order to investigate sport's influence on growth during puberty, we examined 398 boys 10-16 yr old. 192 of these subjects had been playing football as a competitive sport, and 206 were considered as controls, having never practised sports regularly. Both groups were divided into prepubertal (with testicular volume less than or equal to 2.5 cc) and pubertal, with the latter further divided into the following chronological and bone age groups: 10-11.99, 12-13.99, 14-16 yr. In these subjects we evaluated auxological-anthropometric and biological maturity characteristics and endocrine parameters (cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, testosterone). No significant difference was found between prepubertal athletes and controls concerning anthropometric and biological maturation parameters, whereas testosterone basal levels were significantly lower (p less than 0.05) and DHEAS values were significantly higher (p less than 0.05). Pubertal football players were significantly taller than controls (particularly at 14-16 yr chronological age), with a greater biacromial diameter after 12 yr chronological and bone age and thinner skinfolds at 12-13.99 chronological and bone age. They were more advanced in all biological maturation parameters i.e. pubic hair, testicular volume and bone age, particularly those subjects playing football for the greatest number of years and training time. In pubertal football players the increase in DHEAS (p less than 0.05) already seen in prepubertals is also combined with a significant increase in testosterone (p less than 0.0001) and cortisol (p less than 0.05). Thus football players DHEAS is already higher during prepuberty and this increase chronologically precedes the advance in all the auxological-maturative parameters typical of our pubertal subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)