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Most Prevalent Diving Related Health Problems in SCUBA Divers

Sheeba Ahmed

There is a dearth of scientific studies about some common health related problems that don’t pose any immediate danger to a diver’s life. However, they are ruining the diving holidays of numerous people and may also lead to other life threatening situations. Present paper is a small attempt to find out the most prevalent diving related health problems and their relation with frequency of diving, certification level, age, experience, and some other pre-existing health problems not associated with diving. Through a social networking site, divers were asked to retrospectively complete a questionnaire on any pre-existing illness and most common diving related health problems experienced by them. A total of forty seven responses collected. Calculations were performed using Chi square test. Pain in the ear was most prevalent problem, experienced by 35% divers, followed by headache (21% divers) and sea sickness (17% divers). Most common problem for divers was pain in the ear (25% divers), sea sickness (15%), and headache (8%). These problems were not found associated with frequency of diving, certification level, number of dives, age of the diver, and some pre-existing medical conditions, except pain in the ear that was found associated with pre-existing medical conditions (motion sickness, any form of respiratory discomfort, panic attack & phobias, recurrent ear problems, and migraine headaches).