Sports career-related concussion and mental health symptoms in former elite athletes

BackgroundIn elite sports, concussion is common and recurrent, especially in high-speed contact or collision sports such as american and australian football, ice hockey and rugby. Mental health symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance) are often reported by former elite athletes, with prevalence ranging from 16% for distress to 26% for anxiety/depression. This article focuses on the potential relationship between sports career-related concussion and mental health symptoms in former elite athletes.MethodA narrative mini-review was based on the scientific literature.ResultsSome literature based on cross-sectional data suggests that sports career-related concussion might lead in the long term to mental health symptoms in former elite athletes. Retired professional American football players reporting three or more previous concussions were found to be three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression than those with no history of concussion. Former professional athletes from football, ice hockey and rugby who reported a history of six or more concussions were approximately up to five times more likely to report mental health symptoms.ConclusionsWhile longitudinal evidence about any causal relationship is lacking, the suggested relationship between sports career-related concussion and mental health symptoms in former elite athletes warrants the development of support measures for elite athletes transitioning out of sport, especially for those with a history of concussion.     

Development of supine and standing knee joint position sense tests

ObjectivesWe aimed to assess the test-retest reliability of a supine and standing knee joint position sense (JPS) test, respectively, and whether they discriminate knees with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury from asymptomatic knees.DesignRepeated measures and cross-sectional.SettingResearch laboratory.ParticipantsFor test-retest reliability, 24 persons with asymptomatic knees. For discriminative analysis: 1) ACLR - 18 persons on average 23 months after unilateral ACL reconstruction, 2) CTRL - 23 less-active persons, and 3) ATHL - 21 activity level-matched athletes.Main outcome measuresAbsolute error (AE) and variable error (VE).ResultsTest-retest reliability was generally highest for AE of the standing test (ICC 0.64–0.91). Errors were less for the standing compared to the supine test across groups. CTRL had greater knee JPS AE (P = 0.005) and VE (P = 0.040) than ACLR. ACLR knees showed greater VE compared to the contralateral non-injured knees for both tests (P = 0.032), albeit with a small effect size (η_p² = 0.244). Conclusions: Our standing test was more reliable and elicited lesser errors than our supine test. Less-active controls, rather than ACLR, produced significantly greater errors. Activity level may be a more predominant factor than ACLR for knee JPS ∼2 years post-reconstruction.     

The relationship between anthropometric factors and hyperuricemia in adolescent athletes

PurposeHyperuricemia has been increasingly prevalent and linked to future cardio-metabolic risks in adolescent population. The study aims to explore the relationship between anthropometric indices and hyperuricemia among adolescent athletes.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study of 387 student athletes (218 males and 169 females; mean age, 17.4 ± 1.3 years) in Northern Taiwan in 2013–2015. We exhibited the prevalence of hyperuricemia among this population, and tested the association of serum uric acid levels with different anthropometric parameters in males and females respectively.ResultsA total of 59 (27.1%) male and 37 (21.8%) female adolescent athletes had hyperuricemia. Both in male and female adolescents, several obesity-related anthropometric parameters were significantly higher in hyperuricemia groups than in non-hyperuricemia groups. The odds of having hyperuricemia significantly increased with increasing BMI, BMI z-score, waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio in logistic regression analysis. There was a U-shaped association between uric acid level and body fat percentage (BF%) in both genders. Subjects whose BF% in lowest-body-fat-percentage quintile (quintile 1) and highest-body-fat-percentage quintile (quintile 5) had higher mean serum uric acid level than subjects whose BF% in the middle three quintiles. In both genders, the odds ratio (OR) of having hyperuricemia in subjects whose BF% in quintile 1 remained significantly higher than the OR in the middle three quintiles (the reference) after adjusting for age and BMI z-score.ConclusionsIn addition to the positive association between obesity and hyperuricemia, there is a U shape association between BF% and prevalence of hyperuricemia among adolescent athletes of both genders.