Effects of the COVID-19 Health Crisis on Sports Practice, Life Quality, and Emotional Status in Spanish High-Performance Athletes
Conde, Elena (Faculty of Sport, San Antonio Catholic University (UCAM))
Martínez-Aranda, Luis Manuel (Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia. Human Movement Neuroscience Research Group (Neuromove))
Sanz, Gema (Karolinska Institutet (Estocolm, Suècia). Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology)
López de Subijana, Cristina (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte)
Sánchez-Pato, Antonio (Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia. Olympic Studies Center)
Díaz-Aroca, Álvaro (Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia)
Leiva-Arcas, Alejandro (Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia. Olympic Studies Center)
García-Roca, Juan Alfonso (Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia. Olympic Studies Center)
Ramis Laloux, Yago (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psicologia Bàsica, Evolutiva i de l'Educació)
Torregrossa, Miquel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psicologia Bàsica, Evolutiva i de l'Educació)

Data:	2021
Resum:	Spain is one of the many countries highly affected by the COVID-19 crisis, establishing very restrictive measures with a complete lockdown for more than 3 months. This situation forced the complete closure of sport practice and national or international competitions, leading to a negative impact on physical and psychological health of high-performance athletes. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (a) to determine the effects of the COVID-19 health crisis on Spanish high-performance athletes in terms of sports practice, life quality, and emotional state and (b) to identify the profile with the greatest difficulties during and after the lockdown. A sample of 130 high-performance athletes aged between 18 and 34 years (67 women and 63 men) participated in this study (83. 1% achieved a medal in National-International elite competitions; 86. 9% were considered student-athletes). Measures included socio-demographic data through a 5-dimension ad hoc survey: physical activity and exercise using an adapted version from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) ; health status and limitations using an adapted version of SF-12 Health Questionnaire ; Perceived stress (Short-PSS) ; and Mood States (29-item POMS). All participants have shown a significant decrease pre-post-lockdown in both health and performance perception, especially in women, individual athletes, medalists, and student-athletes. Strong limitations of training, attention, and motivation as well as a moderate negative emotional state during lockdown were reported, in women, individual athletes, medalists, and student-athletes. Even with an improved emotional state and energy level in the post-lockdown period, moderate-to-high stress scores were reported by women and medalists. Our findings highlight the importance of paying attention to the physical and psychological health of elite athletes on three profiles: team athletes (due to social distance), student-athletes (dual-career issues), and women athletes (prevalence of implicit gender inequalities in sport).
Nota:	Ajuts: This work belongs to the "Efectos de la nueva normalidad por crisis sanitaria COVID-19 en la práctica deportiva, la calidad de vida y el estado emocional de los deportistas de élite en España, EASED (CoV-19)" project, supported by San Antonio Catholic University (UCAM) (Plan Propio, PMAFICOVID19/19), Murcia, Spain.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	COVID-19 ; Elite athletes ; Lockdown ; Post-lockdown ; Sports performance ; Emotional state
Publicat a:	Frontiers in psychology, Vol. 12 (september 2021) , ISSN 1664-1078

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.736499
PMID: 34646217

14 p, 2.6 MB

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