Cargando…

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Psychiatric Symptoms among Swiss Elite Athletes during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated first lockdown measures may have had a relevant impact on the mental health of competitive athletes. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of various mental health issues in a Swiss elite athletes’ cohort during the first lockdown of the pandemic, and t...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fröhlich, Stefan, Imboden, Christian, Iff, Samuel, Spörri, Jörg, Quednow, Boris B., Scherr, Johannes, Seifritz, Erich, Claussen, Malte C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682521
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010780
_version_ 1784587831163748352
author Fröhlich, Stefan
Imboden, Christian
Iff, Samuel
Spörri, Jörg
Quednow, Boris B.
Scherr, Johannes
Seifritz, Erich
Claussen, Malte C.
author_facet Fröhlich, Stefan
Imboden, Christian
Iff, Samuel
Spörri, Jörg
Quednow, Boris B.
Scherr, Johannes
Seifritz, Erich
Claussen, Malte C.
author_sort Fröhlich, Stefan
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated first lockdown measures may have had a relevant impact on the mental health of competitive athletes. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of various mental health issues in a Swiss elite athletes’ cohort during the first lockdown of the pandemic, and to assess their association with different potential risk factors. Elite athletes from different disciplines were interviewed during the first lockdown in spring 2020 by means of an online questionnaire on symptoms of existing anxieties, depression and sleep disorders, as well as on training circumstances and physical performance before and during the lockdown. Additionally, the economic situation, secondary occupations and current physical health problems were surveyed. A total of 203 (92 female, 111 male) athletes met the inclusion criteria and participated in the survey. Training volume and intensity decreased significantly during lockdown from 3.1 to 2.7 h/day. Financial existential fears increased and were associated with higher training volumes and higher trait anxiety scores. Depressive symptoms and insomnia were present but not exceptionally frequent during the lockdown. Depressive symptoms were associated with higher anxiety scores, higher insomnia severity scores, lower training intensity and worse coping with the measures taken by the authorities against the pandemic. Changes in training and daily habits due to the first lockdown may have affected the mental health of elite athletes. Longitudinal studies should, however, further investigate the long-term effects of the pandemic on mental health.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8535631
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-85356312021-10-23 Prevalence and Risk Factors of Psychiatric Symptoms among Swiss Elite Athletes during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic Fröhlich, Stefan Imboden, Christian Iff, Samuel Spörri, Jörg Quednow, Boris B. Scherr, Johannes Seifritz, Erich Claussen, Malte C. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated first lockdown measures may have had a relevant impact on the mental health of competitive athletes. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of various mental health issues in a Swiss elite athletes’ cohort during the first lockdown of the pandemic, and to assess their association with different potential risk factors. Elite athletes from different disciplines were interviewed during the first lockdown in spring 2020 by means of an online questionnaire on symptoms of existing anxieties, depression and sleep disorders, as well as on training circumstances and physical performance before and during the lockdown. Additionally, the economic situation, secondary occupations and current physical health problems were surveyed. A total of 203 (92 female, 111 male) athletes met the inclusion criteria and participated in the survey. Training volume and intensity decreased significantly during lockdown from 3.1 to 2.7 h/day. Financial existential fears increased and were associated with higher training volumes and higher trait anxiety scores. Depressive symptoms and insomnia were present but not exceptionally frequent during the lockdown. Depressive symptoms were associated with higher anxiety scores, higher insomnia severity scores, lower training intensity and worse coping with the measures taken by the authorities against the pandemic. Changes in training and daily habits due to the first lockdown may have affected the mental health of elite athletes. Longitudinal studies should, however, further investigate the long-term effects of the pandemic on mental health. MDPI 2021-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8535631/ /pubmed/34682521 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010780 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fröhlich, Stefan
Imboden, Christian
Iff, Samuel
Spörri, Jörg
Quednow, Boris B.
Scherr, Johannes
Seifritz, Erich
Claussen, Malte C.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Psychiatric Symptoms among Swiss Elite Athletes during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Prevalence and Risk Factors of Psychiatric Symptoms among Swiss Elite Athletes during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Prevalence and Risk Factors of Psychiatric Symptoms among Swiss Elite Athletes during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Prevalence and Risk Factors of Psychiatric Symptoms among Swiss Elite Athletes during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence and Risk Factors of Psychiatric Symptoms among Swiss Elite Athletes during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Prevalence and Risk Factors of Psychiatric Symptoms among Swiss Elite Athletes during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort prevalence and risk factors of psychiatric symptoms among swiss elite athletes during the first lockdown of the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682521
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010780
work_keys_str_mv AT frohlichstefan prevalenceandriskfactorsofpsychiatricsymptomsamongswisseliteathletesduringthefirstlockdownofthecovid19pandemic
AT imbodenchristian prevalenceandriskfactorsofpsychiatricsymptomsamongswisseliteathletesduringthefirstlockdownofthecovid19pandemic
AT iffsamuel prevalenceandriskfactorsofpsychiatricsymptomsamongswisseliteathletesduringthefirstlockdownofthecovid19pandemic
AT sporrijorg prevalenceandriskfactorsofpsychiatricsymptomsamongswisseliteathletesduringthefirstlockdownofthecovid19pandemic
AT quednowborisb prevalenceandriskfactorsofpsychiatricsymptomsamongswisseliteathletesduringthefirstlockdownofthecovid19pandemic
AT scherrjohannes prevalenceandriskfactorsofpsychiatricsymptomsamongswisseliteathletesduringthefirstlockdownofthecovid19pandemic
AT seifritzerich prevalenceandriskfactorsofpsychiatricsymptomsamongswisseliteathletesduringthefirstlockdownofthecovid19pandemic
AT claussenmaltec prevalenceandriskfactorsofpsychiatricsymptomsamongswisseliteathletesduringthefirstlockdownofthecovid19pandemic