Which athletes are more vulnerable to mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 crisis? A cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

The present study evaluated the mental health (MH) of athletes according to a range of variables, including SARS-CoV-2 infection status and sport-specific factors. An online survey was sent to 1636 Turkish professional athletes incorporating standardized scales assessing athlete-specific stress, depression, and anxiety. A total of 579 professional athletes (29% SARS-CoV-2 positive) participated in the study. While female athletes reported higher anxiety scores than males (p < 0.01), the depression scores of the athletes who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 were significantly higher than athletes who were not infected (p = 0.03). Higher athlete-specific stress, depression, and anxiety scores were associated with participating in an individual sport, experiencing chronic pain, severe sports injury history, and performance concerns (all p < 0.01). MH symptoms in athletes were associated with being infected with SARS-CoV-2, female gender, participating in an individual sport, and performance concerns. MH assessments should be undertaken with athletes to detect vulnerabilities and enable appropriate and timely MH interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychological state
• SARS-CoV-2
• sports medicine
• athlete
• assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.