An analysis of mental health service usage and injuries among NCAA Division I collegiate athletes

ABSTRACT

Each year, significant resources and effort are devoted to protecting the health of the player and ameliorating the time and financial costs associated with injuries and rehabilitation. However, few studies have investigated the use of mental health services with injuries among the same collegiate athletes over time. This study aimed to investigate injury prevalence rates and injuries incidences in collegiate athletes as a function of mental health service utilization. Results suggest that psychological stress may be one of the key vulnerabilities for injury or reinjury in athlete populations. Athletes visiting a mental health professional were twice as likely to have also sustained a sport-related or non-sport-related injury and approximately 1.5 times as likely to sustain multiple injuries compared to their peers. Injury risk and recovery outcomes can likely be bolstered by making mental health professionals more available to student athletes and integrating psychological services into normal athletic training activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Collegiate athlete
• counseling
• reinjury
• psychology
• wellness
• incident rate ratio
• odds ratio
• provider
• stress
• sport

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the coaches, trainers, physicians, licensed mental health practitioners, and other staff members who made this study possible through their steadfast support of student athletes and diligent data recording. We also acknowledge Les Podlog for his guidance on previous versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). Material has been reviewed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. There is no objection to its presentation and/or publication. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the author, and are not to be construed as official, or as reflecting true views of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense. The investigators have adhered to the policies for protection of human subjects as prescribed in AR 70–25.