Scuba diving can be fatal for unfit over-50s

♦Scuba diving is becoming an increasingly deadly pastime for older people, as more fall victim to underwater heart attacks.

Researchers say that many divers do not realise they are no longer fit enough for the sport, which they may have taken up when they were younger and in better shape.

Figures show that between 1989 and 2015, the proportion of diving fatalities worldwide involving those aged 50 to 59 increased steadily from 15 per cent to 35 per cent, and deaths among the over-60s soared from 5 per cent to 20 per cent.

Heart attacks and strokes are now the second leading cause of death for scuba divers after drowning. Dr Peter Buzzacott, the study author from the University of Western Australia, said: “Divers who learned to dive years ago and who are now old and overweight are at increased risk of dying.”

Learner divers go through a rigorous training process, in which they are screened for fitness, but after that their certification lasts for life.

Researchers looked at a massive databank in the US of 736million people, of whom 113,892 said their main hobby was scuba diving.

Around one third of the divers were aged 50 or older, and many had risk factors that made them more susceptible to suffering an underwater heart attack.

Around 54 per cent had smoked cigarettes at some point in their lives, compared with 46 per cent of non divers. Nearly half of divers were overweight (48 per cent) compared with 43 per cent of non divers and one third had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Dr Buzzacott advised all divers to have routine fitness assessments with their doctor, and take action to lose weight and lower blood pressure and cholesterol or they risk facing a heart attack underwater.

The research was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.