Mental health impact on at-risk high-level athletes during COVID-19 lockdown: A pre-, during and post-lockdown longitudinal cohort study of adjustment disorder

Simons, Chantal; Martin, Lisa; Balcombe, Luke; Dunn, Peter K.; Clark, Ross

doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2020.12.012

Cited by 15 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Individual sports athletes were also prone to higher levels of psychological distress as compared to team sports athletes, as shown in a similar study performed with 64 professional and non-professional Nigerian athletes (Uroh and Adewunmi, 2021). Another prospective study followed a cohort of 15 high-level Australian athletes over 18 weeks and showed higher risk of adjustment disorder (i.e., failure to cope with a stressor expressed by depressive symptoms) following lockdown measures as compared to pre-pandemic baseline levels (Simons et al, 2021). Many stressors were reported including the toll of isolation, the lack of access to training facilities, the uncertainty about the future and the cancellation of competitive events.…”

Section: How May the Covid-19 Pandemic Have Affected Injury Prevention Programs?mentioning

confidence: 69%

“…As stated above, the COVID-19 related successive lockdowns and/or restraining orders have dramatically impacted a proportion of high-level athletes' mental health (Pillay et al, 2020;Simons et al, 2021;Uroh and Adewunmi, 2021). To address this, physicians, coaches and/or sport psychologists, may measure motivations, emotions, cognitions, metacognitions and behaviors in order to monitor psychological risk factors of injuries and mental disorders during forced isolation (Philippot et al, 2019).…”

Section: Mental Health Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exercise-Based Injury Prevention in High-Level and Professional Athletes: Narrative Review and Proposed Standard Operating Procedure for Future Lockdown-Like Contexts After COVID-19

Martens¹,

Delvaux

Forthomme

et al. 2021

Front. Sports Act. Living

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In regular times, implementing exercise-based injury prevention programs into the training routine of high-level and professional athletes represents a key and challenging aspect to decrease injury risk. Barriers to implementing such prevention programs have previously been identified such as lack of resources, logistic issues or motivation. The COVID-19 pandemic associated with restrictions on daily life dramatically impacted sports participation from training to competition. It is therefore reasonable to assume that such lockdown-like context has exacerbated the challenge to implement exercise-based injury prevention programs, potentially leading to a greater musculoskeletal injury risk. In this narrative review, recommendations are proposed for building an expertise- and evidence-based Standard Operating Procedure for injury prevention in lockdown-like contexts for high-level and professional athletes. The following recommendations can be provided: (1) assess the global and sport-specific risks in the light of the ongoing cause of isolation; (2) adapt remote training materials and programs; (3) ensure regular quality communication within the staff, between athletes and the staff as well as between athletes; (4) follow the athlete's mental well-being; and (5) plan for a safe return-to-sports as well as for an ongoing monitoring of the load-recovery balance. These key domains should further be addressed to comply with local policies, which are subject to change over time in each individual country. The use of these recommendations may improve the readiness of athletes, coaches, physicians and all sports stakeholders for future lockdown-like contexts.

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Section: How May the Covid-19 Pandemic Have Affected Injury Prevention Programs?mentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: Mental Health Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exercise-Based Injury Prevention in High-Level and Professional Athletes: Narrative Review and Proposed Standard Operating Procedure for Future Lockdown-Like Contexts After COVID-19

Martens¹,

Delvaux

Forthomme

et al. 2021

Front. Sports Act. Living

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Given that clinical mental health symptoms, including anxiety and depression, increased with the initial spread of the infection, when there were severe restrictions on behavior such as lockdown, [ 16 ] most players in the current survey appear to have adapted and experienced recovery as the social environment changed after the initial state of emergency. Previous findings [ 17 , 18 ] showed that the high-level athletes received the impacts on a dichotomized mental health by the COVID-19; they experienced a period of overwhelmingly stress and followed by a return to baseline well-being during the lockdown. Elite athletes are known to be an at-risk but resilient population, resourceful in achieving positive adjustments [ 26 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the variables related to risk factors of mental health problems in the athletes examined in this study might not be sufficient. Based on the results of previous research [ 18 ], in future research we need to expand the scope of adjustment risk variables, including injuries, relocation, or being on tour/long periods away from home.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding the mental health status of elite athletes, comparisons between the pre-COVID-19 period and the initial emergency phase and lockdown period have been reported [ 16 – 18 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have compared the pre-COVID-19 period with life after changes in the social environment due to COVID-19.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in the New Life With COVID-19: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study in Japan Rugby Top League Players

Ojio

Matsunaga

Kawamura³

et al. 2022

Int J Public Health

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Objectives: The primary objective is to compare the prevalence of mental health problems, including psychological distress, anxiety and depressive symptoms in Japan Rugby Top League players in the new life with COVID-19 with those evaluated before COVID-19.Methods: An observational comparative web-based cross-sectional study was employed for Japan Rugby Top League players. We compared the data from 220 Japanese and 7 foreign players during the new life with COVID-19 with the data from before COVID-19, which was obtained from 233 Japanese and 18 foreign players. We measured anxiety and depression symptoms with the validated Kessler-6, which has been widely used in clinical and research settings among different populations. To investigate the distribution of K6 score and whether there are discrete clusters or not, we conducted the two-step cluster analysis.Results: In the new life with COVID-19, 15.0% of players reported mild symptoms, which was significantly lower than the 32.3% of players before COVID-19. The prevalence of moderate and severe symptoms was 6.7 and 3.5%, respectively, in the group during the new life with the COVID-19, and 4.8 and 5.2% in the pre-COVID-19 group, with no significant difference. A two-step cluster analysis supported the existence of these two qualitatively different clusters in both groups.Conclusions: With the spread of new lifestyles related to COVID-19, some rugby players may have improved mental health status due to changes in their daily living environment. Such environmental adjustments alone may not have been sufficient to change the mental health status of others. Rugby players or their teams may require mental health professionals and systems that ensure rest, adjust the environment, and sustainably provide more professional care.

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Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health in sports: a review

et al. 2023

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Global pandemic, lockdown restrictions, and COVID-19 compulsory social isolation guidelines have raised unprecedented mental health in the sports community. The COVID-19 pandemic is found to affect the mental health of the population. In critical situations, health authorities and sports communities must identify their priorities and make plans to maintain athletes’ health and athletic activities. Several aspects play an important role in prioritization and strategic planning, e.g., physical and mental health, distribution of resources, and short to long-term environmental considerations. To identify the psychological health of sportspeople and athletes due to the outbreak of COVID-19 has been reviewed in this research. This review article also analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on health mental in databases. The COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine would have a serious negative impact on the mental health of athletes. From the accessible sources, 80 research articles were selected and examined for this purpose such as Research Gate, PubMed, Google Scholar, Springer, Scopus, and Web of Science and based on the involvement for this study 14 research articles were accessed. This research has an intention on mental health issues in athletes due to the Pandemic. This report outlines the mental, emotional and behavioural consequences of COVID-19 home confinement. Further, research literature reported that due to the lack of required training, physical activity, practice sessions, and collaboration with teammates and coaching staff are the prime causes of mental health issues in athletes. The discussions also reviewed several pieces of literature which examined the impacts on sports and athletes, impacts on various countries, fundamental issues of mental health and the diagnosis for the sports person and athletes, and the afterlife of the COVID-19 pandemic for them. Because of the compulsory restrictions and guidelines of this COVID-19 eruption, the athletes of different sports and geographical regions are suffering from fewer psychological issues which were identified in this paper. Accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to negatively affect the mental health of the athletes with the prevalence and levels of anxiety and stress increasing, and depression symptoms remaining unaltered. Addressing and mitigating the negative effect of COVID-19 on the mental health of this population identified from this review.

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Mental health impact on at-risk high-level athletes during COVID-19 lockdown: A pre-, during and post-lockdown longitudinal cohort study of adjustment disorder

Cited by 15 publications

References 9 publications

Exercise-Based Injury Prevention in High-Level and Professional Athletes: Narrative Review and Proposed Standard Operating Procedure for Future Lockdown-Like Contexts After COVID-19

Exercise-Based Injury Prevention in High-Level and Professional Athletes: Narrative Review and Proposed Standard Operating Procedure for Future Lockdown-Like Contexts After COVID-19

Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in the New Life With COVID-19: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study in Japan Rugby Top League Players

Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health in sports: a review

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