Watson D, et al. Impact of return to sport on mental health, physical activity and quality of life of adolescent athletes during COVID-19. Presented at: AAP National Conference & Exhibition; 7.-11. October 2022; Anaheim, California
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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Reports of anxiety and depression have decreased among student-athletes returning to sports after pandemic-related disruptions, according to a presentation at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition.
Co-author Drew Watson, MD, MS, is a member of the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and a team physician in the University of Wisconsin Department of Athletics. He noted that the loss of sports among the country’s young athletes at the start of the pandemic was linked to a dramatic increase in mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.
“Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that adolescent athletes reported low levels of physical activity and quality of life and very high levels of anxiety and depression after school and sports were delayed or canceled,” Watson told Healio.
Watson and colleagues compared the results of surveys completed by 13,002 adolescent athletes nationwide in May 2020 with those completed by 4,419 teenagers in May 2021. The surveys included questions from the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Item Scale (PHQ-9). , the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) item scale, and the Hospital for Special Surgery Function and Activities Short Scale.
The researchers found that the proportion of teenagers who said they had no anxiety was significantly higher in the spring of 2021 than in the spring of 2020 — 57.9% versus 40.5%. Total GAD-7 scores showed a decrease from 7 in 2020 to 4.9 in 2021 (P < 0.001). Similar changes were seen with depression, with the proportion of athletes reporting minimal or no signs of depression increasing to 62.1% in 2021 from 38.4% in 2020. Specifically, PHQ-9 total scores dropped from 7.6 in 2020 to 4.6 in 2021.
In 2021, athletes also reported a significantly higher level of physical activity and quality of life.
Watson mentioned that in general, adolescents who returned to sports reported similar levels of physical activity to those seen before the pandemic, “but still reported lower quality of life and higher levels of anxiety and depression. So while returning to sport appears to have important benefits, mental health will be a vital priority among young athletes after the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He added that while it is possible to “encourage the development of infrastructure that promotes physical activity, prioritize and fund physical education in schools, and support community-based programming that reduces barriers to access,” there is a more important end game.
“Perhaps the most important thing we can do more broadly is to break down the cultural stigma around mental health and create an environment that facilitates conversations about mental health with young athletes so we can identify individuals at risk and get them the help they need,” Watson said.
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