No Pain, No Gain? Prevalence, Location, Context, and Coping Strategies with Regard to Pain Among Young German Elite Basketball Players

Abstract

Pain among young athletes requires special attention given that symptoms occur during the ongoing development of the conditional, and in particular, the motor capacities, and while the musculoskeletal system is in a continuous process of growth. The purpose of this study was to evaluate prevalence, location, context, and coping strategies regarding pain among young athletes. We chose survey data of young elite athletes from the highest level national basketball leagues in Germany, as this meant that health implications may be observed earlier and in a more pronounced manner. The German ‘Adolescents’ and Children’s Health in Elite Basketball study’ (ACHE study), a quantitative survey, was conducted between April and June 2016. Analyses were based on elite basketball players between 13 and 19 years of age from 46 German teams (n = 182). Constant, and to some extent severe pain, was part of daily life of young elite basketball players: eight out of ten players in the highest German leagues suffered from pain at the time of the survey. Knee, leg, and back pain occurred most frequently. For most players, occasional or frequent consumption of analgesics was the norm, in some cases these were also taken “prophylactically”. The consumption of multiple pharmaceutical substances, especially of cyclooxygenase inhibitors such as ibuprofen and diclofenac, is widespread among adolescent elite basketball players. Physicians involved in treating these athletes should address pain and its management preemptively. Coaches, sporting organizations and parents should be involved in this process from an early stage.

Fatores de risco relacionados às desordens tTemporomandibulares em atletas – revisão da literatura

“…5 Desta forma, acredita-se que os fatores psicológicos são responsáveis por desempenharem um papel importante no aumento da tolerância à dor em atletas, 5 uma vez que muitos acreditam na teoria de "no pain, no gain." 28 Em uma revisão sistemática da literatura, Tesarz et al, 2012, 5 , apontaram que os atletas possuem maior tolerância à dor em comparação aos controles normalmente ativos; porém apresentam similar limiar doloroso, enfatizando mais uma vez o papel dos aspectos psicológicos. Desta forma, deve-se considerar que o aumento da tolerância dolorosa de atletas pode predispor a um risco aumentado de lesões neste grupo.…”

Efficient Ways to Combat Doping in a Sports Education Context!? A Systematic Review on Doping Prevention Measures Focusing on Young Age Groups

“…In elite sport, the use of analgesics is also widespread and appears already among young athletes (Tscholl et al, 2008 ; Schneider et al, 2019 ). Additionally, one can describe doping as a severe elite sports problem.…”

Pain, Culture and Pedagogy: A Preliminary Investigation of Attitudes Towards “Reasonable” Pain Tolerance in the Grassroots Reproduction of a Culture of Risk

“…Rather less overall attention has, however, been accorded to how such acculturation informs attitudes towards the pain of others (Coll et al, 2012;Craig et al, 2010;Wandner et al, 2012). Given this, the particular focus of this paper falls upon the relationship between individuals' immersion in the culture of competitive sport, widely viewed as being exaggeratedly tolerant of physically risky pain behaviours (Curry & Strauss, 1994;Nixon, 1992;Schneider et al, 2019;R. T. Smith, 2008), and those individuals' attitudes to how others should deal with pain.…”

“…Rather less overall attention has, however, been accorded to how such acculturation informs attitudes towards the pain of others ( Coll et al., 2012 ; Craig et al., 2010 ; Wandner et al., 2012 ). Given this, the particular focus of this paper falls upon the relationship between individuals’ immersion in the culture of competitive sport, widely viewed as being exaggeratedly tolerant of physically risky pain behaviours ( Curry & Strauss, 1994 ; Nixon, 1992 ; Schneider et al., 2019 ; R. T. Smith, 2008 ), and those individuals’ attitudes to how others should deal with pain. In short, it is quantitatively explored whether persons who are highly immersed in a culture which is often thought to accept (and even promote) a “no pain, no gain” ethos ( Heil, 2012 ; Nemeth et al., 2005 ) will come to expect that others should tolerate more pain within given activities (sporting and otherwise) than those who are less so immersed.…”

“…A range of studies has similarly illustrated that the manner in which individuals handle pain can have profound impacts on the ways in which self-identified peers and/or protégés can then orient to their own ( Craig et al., 2010 ; Weinberg et al., 2013 ). Within particular cultural groupings, pedagogical agents such as teachers, mentors and coaches can play a pivotal role in the transmission of a range of pain-related attitudes from one generation to the next ( Heil, 2012 ; Howe, 2004 ; Schneider et al., 2019 ). This is done not only through their simple provision of a personal example, but through direct inculcation, and through the mobilisation of resources (such as the very right to participate in given activities) which tacitly or explicitly reward certain attitudes towards pain, and punish others ( Nixon, 1993 ; Walk, 1997 ).…”