“Is the focus in professional rugby ever really on health?”: A qualitative study on the uptake of illness prevention guidelines in rugby

Chesson, Lucy; Jones, Ben; Backhouse, Susan H.

doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2022.102327

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Despite the common knowledge of struggles athletes face after competitive sports,21 limited research has examined former athletes’ challenges as they transition to life after competitive sports 22 23. Athletes who suffer a career-ending injury often experience loss of identity, lack of external support and/or mental health decline 24.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Midlife health crisis of former competitive athletes: dissecting their experiences via qualitative study

Capin,

Wolf,

Street

et al. 2024

BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sports participation confers many health benefits yet greatly increases injury risk. Long-term health outcomes in former athletes and transition to life after competitive sports are understudied. Ending a sport may pose physical and psychosocial challenges. The purpose was to determine the lived experiences of former competitive athletes and how their sports participation impacted their long-term health and well-being. Former college varsity athletes participated in semistructured interviews focusing on their experiences, including past and current health, the impact of injuries, activity, exercise, diet and transition to life after competitive sport. Thematic analysis was completed using a collaborative, iterative process. Thirty-one (16 female, 15 male) former college athletes aged 51.3±7.4 years were interviewed. Six themes emerged: (1) lifelong athlete identity; (2) structure, support and challenges of the college athlete experience; (3) a big transition to life beyond competitive sport; (4) impact of competitive sport on long-term health; (5) facilitators and barriers to long-term health after sport and (6) transferable life skills. Continuing sports eased the transition for many but often delayed their postathlete void. Challenges included managing pain and prior injury (eg,If I didn't have my knee injury, I would definitely be more active), reducing energy needs and intake (eg,When I was an athlete, I could eat anything; and unfortunately, that’s carried into my regular life),lack of accountability, changed identity and lost resources and social support. Participants suggested a programme, toolkit, mentoring or exit course to facilitate the transition. While former athletes benefit from transferrable life skills and often continue sports and exercise, they face unique challenges such as managing pain and prior injury, staying active, reducing energy intake and changing identity. Future research should develop and evaluate a toolkit, programme and other resources to facilitate life after ending competitive sports under ‘normal’ conditions (eg, retirement) and after a career-ending injury.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Midlife health crisis of former competitive athletes: dissecting their experiences via qualitative study

Capin,

Wolf,

Street

et al. 2024

BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Is your system fit for purpose? Female athlete health considerations for rugby injury and illness surveillance systems

Moore,

McCarthy‐Ryan,

Palmer

et al. 2024

European Journal of Sport Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This review discusses female‐specific health considerations in injury and illness surveillance and provides rugby‐specific recommendations for future surveillance. Identifying priority injury and illness problems by determining those problems with the highest rates within women's rugby may highlight different priorities than sex comparisons between men's and women's rugby. Whilst sports exposure is the primary risk for health problems in sports injury and illness surveillance, female athletes have health domains that should also be considered. Alongside female athlete health domains, studies investigating rugby injuries and illnesses highlight the need to broaden the health problem definition typically used in rugby injury and illness surveillance. Using a non‐time‐loss health problem definition, recording female‐specific population characteristics, embedding female athlete health domains and having up‐to‐date injury and illness coding systems should be prioritized within surveillance systems to begin to shed light on potential interactions between sports exposure, health domains and, injuries and illnesses. We call for a collaborative approach across women's rugby to facilitate large injury and illness datasets to be generated and enable granular level categorization and analysis, which may be necessary for certain female athlete health domains. Applying these recommendations will ensure injury and illness surveillance systems improve risk identification and better inform injury and illness prevention strategies in women's rugby.

show abstract

“Is the focus in professional rugby ever really on health?”: A qualitative study on the uptake of illness prevention guidelines in rugby

Cited by 2 publications

References 49 publications

Midlife health crisis of former competitive athletes: dissecting their experiences via qualitative study

Midlife health crisis of former competitive athletes: dissecting their experiences via qualitative study

Is your system fit for purpose? Female athlete health considerations for rugby injury and illness surveillance systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About