scholarly journals Elite athletes get pregnant, have healthy babies and return to sport early postpartum

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. e000652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorunn Sundgot-Borgen ◽  
Christine Sundgot-Borgen ◽  
Grethe Myklebust ◽  
Nina Sølvberg ◽  
Monica Klungland Torstveit

ObjectivesTo enhance knowledge on pregnancy and return to sport in the postpartum period in elite female athletes.Methods34 Norwegian elite athletes (33.1 years) and 34 active controls (31.5 years) were asked about training and competitive history, pregnancy-related issues, injuries, body dissatisfaction (BD), drive for thinness (DT), eating disorders (ED) and practical experiences, through a questionnaire and interview. Independent samples T-tests or χ² tests for between-group differences and paired-samples T-tests and repeated measures analysis of variance for within group differences were used.ResultsNo group differences in fertility problems, miscarriage, preterm birth or low birth weight were found. Both groups decreased training volume all trimesters and the first two postpartum periods compared with prepregnancy, and more athletes returned to sport/exercise at week 0–6 postpartum. We found no group differences in complications during pregnancy and delivery, but athletes reported fewer common complaints. Four athletes experienced stress fracture postpartum. Athletes had higher BD and DT postpartum, while controls reduced DT score. Number of athletes with clinical ED was reduced postpartum, while constant in controls. Athletes were not satisfied with advice related to strength training and nutrition during pregnancy.ConclusionElite athletes and active controls get pregnant easily, deliver healthy babies and decrease training during pregnancy and the first postpartum periods compared with prepregnancy. Most athletes and every third control returned to sport or exercise at week 0–6 postpartum. Athletes report stress fractures and increased BD and DT, but decreased ED postpartum. However, since relatively few athletes were included these findings need further investigation.

Mindfulness ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Navarrete ◽  
Miguel Ángel García-Salvador ◽  
Ausiàs Cebolla ◽  
Rosa Baños

Abstract Objectives The purpose of this exploratory non-randomized controlled study was to determine the acceptance and effectiveness of an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) co-designed by a police officer. Methods A pretest-posttest control group design was followed. Participants (MBI group = 20; control group = 18) answered baseline and post-training self-reported measures. In addition, the weekly emotional state of the MBI group was collected. Paired-samples t-test and analysis of covariance were performed for pre-post within-group and between-group differences, respectively, as well as linear mixed effects analysis of repeated measures for week-by-week data. Results High acceptance and attendance rates, as well as significant pre-post within-group differences in the MBI group in mindfulness (η2 = 0.43), self-compassion (η2 = 0.43), depression (η2 = 0.54), anxiety (η2 = 0.46), stress (η2 = 0.51), difficulties in emotion regulation, sleep quality (η2 = 0.57), and burnout (η2 = 0.31–0.47), were identified. Moreover, police officers who underwent the MBI experienced a week by week decrease of anger, disgust, anxiety, sadness, and desire. Finally, after adjusting for pre-test scores, significant between-group differences were found in the way of attending to internal and external experiences (observing mindfulness facet; ηp2 = 0.21), depression symptoms (ηp2 = 0.23), general distress (ηp2 = 0.24), and the degree of physical and psychological exhaustion (personal burnout; ηp2 = 0.20). Conclusions The preliminary effectiveness of this MBI on psychopathology and quality of life outcomes in Spanish police officers was discussed. Previous evidence regarding the promising use of MBIs in this population was supported.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
Erin Hammer ◽  
Scott Hetzel ◽  
Adam Pfaller ◽  
Tim McGuine

Background: The long-term effect of sport-related concussion on mood in adolescent athletes is largely unknown. Hypothesis: Longitudinal measures of depression will worsen acutely after sport-related concussion and improve with concussion symptom resolution. Study Design: Prospective cohort study. Level of Evidence: Level 3. Methods: A population-based sample of 2160 high school athletes from 31 urban, suburban, and rural high schools completed preseason baseline concussion symptom evaluation and Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9) assessments over 2 years. Athletic trainers recorded onset of sport-related concussion, and concussed athletes completed the PHQ-9 assessment within 24 to 72 hours, 7 days, date of return to sport, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after sport-related concussion. Scores at each time point were compared to baseline with mixed-effects models and repeated-measures analysis of variance. Sex-based differences were assessed using mixed-effect models. Results: Of the 2160 athletes enrolled in the study, 125 (5.8%; 80 males, 45 females) sustained a sport-related concussion. PHQ-9 scores worsened from baseline at 24 to 72 hours (+1.05; 95% CI, 0.26-1.84; P = 0.003) and 7 days (+0.91; 95% CI, 0.23-1.60; P = 0.006). However, PHQ-9 scores improved from baseline to date of return to sport (−1.38; 95% CI, −2.20 to −0.55; P < 0.001), 3 months (−1.08; 95% CI, −1.88 to −0.28; P = 0.003), 6 months (−1.19; 95% CI, −2.04 to −0.34; P = 0.001), and 12 months after sport-related concussion (−0.76; 95% CI, −1.43 to −0.08; P = 0.028). Female athletes reported more severe concussion symptoms 24 to 72 hours after sport-related concussion compared with male athletes (female, 20.5 [interquartile range (IQR), 10.0-36.2]; male, 9.0 [IQR, 4.0-19.5]; P = 0.003). Neither PHQ-9 scores nor change in PHQ-9 scores differed between male and female athletes at any time point. Conclusion: Sport-related concussion did not worsen longitudinal measures of depressed mood in this cohort of high school athletes. Clinical Relevance: Emotional symptoms are common after sport-related concussion, but typically resolve by return to sport.


1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather A. Hausenblas ◽  
Albert V. Carron

Research shows inconclusive results pertaining to the comparison of eating disorder indices between athletes and nonathletes and among different subgroups of athletes. The purpose of this study was to meta-analytically review the literature on (a) bulimia nervosa indices, (b) anorexia nervosa indices, and (c) drive for thinness (a cardinal feature of both anorexia and bulimia) in male and female athletes. Results of 92 studies with 560 effect sizes (ES) revealed small ESs (range: −.01 to .30) in relation to group membership characteristics. Results for female athletes revealed small ESs for bulimia and anorexia indices, suggesting that female athletes self-reported more bulimic and anorexic symptomatology than control groups; nonsignificant group differences were evidenced for drive for thinness. Results for male athletes revealed small ESs on all three indices, suggesting that male athletes self-reported more eating disorder symptomatology than control groups. Moderator variables that might contribute to understanding the results are examined, and future research directions are presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
Mariya Sedunova ◽  
Liliya Konovalova

International potential and consequent greater competition in belt wrestling increase the significance of assessing quantitative and qualitative indicators of competitive activity of the strongest wrestlers in the world. It is important to identify the sport development trends and to search for effective ways and tools for achievement of the sport excellence. Purpose: to reveal the features of efficient competitive activities of the world leading wrestlers on the basis of analysis of group differences in technical and tactical excellence indicators. Materials and methods of research. We analyzed videos of 285 events with participation of 197 wrestlers competing at the Belt Wrestling World Championship 2019 in Kazan. We registered the following indicators of competitive activity: the total and average number of fighting techniques, including techniques executed to the right and to the left side within 4 minutes of combat; number and types of technical actions of competition winners among men and women. Research results and discussion. The paper focuses on the comparative analysis of technical and tactical skills of men and women, the winners of the Belt Wrestling World Championship. The research revealed distinguishing features of the winner’s technical toolkit including the diversity of technical and tactical actions, a balance in the knowledge of the right and left-handed techniques. At the same time, the analysis of technical and tactical actions in women wrestling shows the backlog of female athletes in these components of technical fitness.


Author(s):  
Anders Håkansson ◽  
Karin Moesch ◽  
Caroline Jönsson ◽  
Göran Kenttä

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on the world of sports due to periods of home quarantine, bans against public gatherings, travel restrictions, and a large number of postponed or canceled major sporting events. The literature hitherto is sparse, but early indications display signs of psychological impact on elite athletes due to the pandemic. However, beyond acute effects from lockdown and short-term interrupted athletic seasons, the postponed and still uncertain Olympic and Paralympic Games may represent a major career insecurity to many athletes world-wide, and may lead to severe changes to everyday lives and potentially prolonged psychological distress. Given the long-term perspective of these changes, researchers and stakeholders should address mental health and long-term job insecurity in athletes, including a specific focus on those with small financial margins, such as many female athletes, parasports athletes, athletes in smaller sports, and athletes from developing countries. Implications and the need for research are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally J. K. Gallena ◽  
Nancy Pearl Solomon ◽  
Arthur T. Johnson ◽  
Jafar Vossoughi ◽  
Wei Tian

Purpose An investigational, portable instrument was used to assess inspiratory (R i ) and expiratory (R e ) resistances during resting tidal breathing (RTB), postexercise breathing (PEB), and recovery breathing (RB) in athletes with and without paradoxical vocal fold motion disorder (PVFMD). Method Prospective, controlled, repeated measures within-subject and between-groups design. Twenty-four teenage female athletes, 12 with and 12 without PVFMD, breathed into the Airflow Perturbation Device for baseline measures of respiratory resistance and for two successive 1-min trials after treadmill running for up to 12 min. Exercise duration and dyspnea ratings were collected and compared across groups. Results Athletes with PVFMD had lower than control R i and R e values during RTB that significantly increased at PEB and decreased during RB. Control athletes' R e decreased significantly from RTB to PEB but not from PEB to RB, whereas R i did not change from RTB to PEB but decreased from PEB to RB. Athletes without PVFMD ran longer, providing lower dyspnea ratings. Conclusion Immediately following exercise, athletes with PVFMD experienced increased respiratory resistance that affected their exercise performance. The difference in resting respiratory resistances between groups is intriguing and could point to anatomical differences or neural adaptation in teenagers with PVFMD. The Airflow Perturbation Device appears to be a clinically feasible tool that can provide insight into PVFMD and objective data for tracking treatment progress.


1994 ◽  
Vol 75 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1635-1638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Lowe

A repeated-measures, balanced-order design was used to test for the effects of alcohol on creativity as measured by verbal forms of the Torrance Creativity Test. Social drinkers (8 men and 8 women) performed under 2 conditions, alcohol (dose = 0.83 ml ethanol/kg body weight) and a placebo. Significant group differences in the alcohol-creativity interaction were noted in that the performance of higher-scoring (in the placebo condition) subjects was impaired by alcohol whereas that of lower-scoring subjects was enhanced.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (04) ◽  
pp. 273-278
Author(s):  
Haihong Liu ◽  
Yuanhu Liu ◽  
Ying Li ◽  
Xin Jin ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
...  

AbstractWide dynamic range compression (WDRC) has been widely used in hearing aid technology. However, several reports indicate that WDRC may improve audibility at the expense of speech intelligibility. As such, a modified amplification compression scheme, named adaptive compression, was developed. However, the effect of compression strategies on speech perception in pediatric hearing aid users has not been clearly reported.The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of adaptive compression and fast-acting WDRC processing strategies on sentence recognition in noise with Mandarin, pediatric hearing aid users.This study was set up using a double-blind, within-subject, repeated-measures design.Twenty-six children who spoke Mandarin Chinese as their primary language and had bilateral sensorineural hearing loss participated in the study.Sentence recognition in noise was evaluated in behind-the-ear technology with both adaptive compression processing and fast-acting WDRC processing and was selected randomly for each child. Percent correct sentence recognition in noise with fast-acting WDRC and adaptive compression was collected from each participant. Correlation analysis was performed to examine the effect of gender, age at assessment, and hearing threshold of the better ear on signal-to-noise ratio, and a paired-samples t test was employed to compare the performance of the adaptive compression strategy and fast-acting WDRC processing.The mean percentage correct of sentence recognition in noise with behind-the-ear technology with fast-acting WDRC and adaptive compression processing were 62.24% and 68.71%, respectively. The paired-samples t test showed that the performance of the adaptive compression strategy was significantly better than the fast-acting WDRC processing (t = 3.190, p = 0.004).Compared with the fast-acting WDRC, adaptive compression provided better sentence recognition in noise for Mandarin pediatric hearing aid users.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Hannah W. Tucker ◽  
Emily R. Tobin ◽  
Matthew F. Moran

Context: Performance on single-leg hopping (SLH) assessments is commonly included within return-to-sport criteria for rehabilitating athletes. Triaxial accelerometers have been used to quantify impact loading in a variety of movements, including hopping; however, they have never been attached to the tibia during SLH, and their method of fixation has not been investigated. Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify triaxial accelerations and evaluate the influence of the fixation method of a lightweight inertial measurement unit (Blue Trident) mounted to the tibia during SLH performance. Design: Single cohort, repeated-measures experimental design. Participants: Sixteen healthy participants (10 females and 6 males; 20 [0.9] y; 1.67 [0.08] m; 66.0 [8.5] kg) met the inclusion criteria, volunteered, and completed this study. Interventions: Participants performed 2 sets of 3 SLH trials with an inertial measurement unit (1500 Hz) fixated to the tibia, each set with 1 of 2 attachment methods (double-sided tape [DST] with athletic tape and silicon strap [SS] with Velcro adhesion). Main Outcome Measures: Hop distance, peak tibial acceleration (PTA), time to PTA, and the acceleration slope were assessed during each hop landing. Results: Repeated-measures analysis of variance determined no significant effect of the attachment method on hop metrics (P = .252). Across 3 trials, both fixation methods (DST and SS) had excellent reliability values (intraclass correlation coefficient: .868–.941) for PTA and acceleration slope but not for time to PTA (intraclass correlation coefficient: .397–.768). The PTA for DST (27.22 [7.94] g) and SS (26.21 [10.48] g) was comparable and had a moderate, positive relationship (DST: r = .72, P < .01; SS: r = .77, P < .01) to SLH distance. Conclusions: Tibial inertial measurement units with triaxial accelerometers can reliably assess PTA during performance of the SLH, and SS is a viable alternative tibial attachment to DST.


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