Effect of Physical and Academic Stress on Illness and Injury in Division 1 College Football Players

Abstract

Stress-injury models of health suggest that athletes experience more physical injuries during times of high stress. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of increased physical and academic stress on injury restrictions for athletes (n = 101) on a division I college football team. Weeks of the season were categorized into 3 levels: high physical stress (HPS) (i.e., preseason), high academic stress (HAS) (i.e., weeks with regularly scheduled examinations such as midterms, finals, and week before Thanksgiving break), and low academic stress (LAS) (i.e., regular season without regularly scheduled academic examinations). During each week, we recorded whether a player had an injury restriction, thereby creating a longitudinal binary outcome. The data were analyzed using a hierarchical logistic regression model to properly account for the dependency induced by the repeated observations over time within each subject. Significance for regression models was accepted at p ≤ 0.05. We found that the odds of an injury restriction during training camp (HPS) were the greatest compared with weeks of HAS (odds ratio [OR] = 2.05, p = 0.0003) and LAS (OR = 3.65, p < 0.001). However, the odds of an injury restriction during weeks of HAS were nearly twice as high as during weeks of LAS (OR = 1.78, p = 0.0088). Moreover, the difference in injury rates reported in all athletes during weeks of HPS and weeks of HAS disappeared when considering only athletes that regularly played in games (OR = 1.13, p = 0.75) suggesting that HAS may affect athletes that play to an even greater extent than HPS. Coaches should be aware of both types of stressors and consider carefully the types of training methods imposed during times of HAS when injuries are most likely.

Subjective well-being and training load predict in-season injury and illness risk in female youth soccer players

“…Although prior research has identified decreased sleep as a consequence of overtraining and a possible risk factor for illness in athletes,12 we failed to identify a similar relationship. In addition, recent studies of collegiate football players46 and adolescent male soccer players24 found that illness risk was associated with increases in psychosocial stress. These prior studies have evaluated the effects of well-being over longer periods; however, it is possible that the increased risk of illness is due to cumulative effects over time which we did not evaluate in the present study.…”

National Strength and Conditioning Association Position Statement on Long-Term Athletic Development

“…The development of physical fitness in youth is a complex process, which involves interaction of growth, maturation, and training (5, 15,16,145,219,261). Practitioners should appreciate the potential impact that other lifestyle factors will have on physical fitness development and physical activity engagement, including dietary behaviors (48,52), educational stress (159), sleep patterns (95,163), psychosocial health (24), and unrealistic external pressures from significant others such as parents or coaches (201,251). Cumulatively, all these factors can impact the engagement and enjoyment experienced by youth, adherence rates to training programs, and consequently the magnitude and rate of development of physical fitness.…”

Perceptions of Safety and Support among High School Football Players Utilizing a Helmet Impact Detection System

“…Specifically, college football players were more likely to get injured during times of high academic stress. 18 Our findings may indicate that high school students either do not experience the same levels of stress as college students and/or their stress is unrelated to injuries. However, as this study only examined concussion related injuries, further exploration should be done at the high school level to examine the relationship between stress and all football related injuries.…”