Mental Health Status, Life Satisfaction, and Mood State of Elite Athletes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Follow-Up Study in the Phases of Home Confinement, Reopening, and Semi-Lockdown Condition

Abstract

Scientific reports notified that the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has raised an unprecedented mental health emergency worldwide. Abrupt changes in daily routine, environmental constraints, adopted home confinement measures, and uncertainty about a date for returning to usual activities can potentially affect mental health and sports activities in athletes. Hence, we designed a cross-sectional study with a within-subjects design to investigate the impact of the pandemic on mental health, mood states, and life satisfaction of elite athletes. During the three phases of home confinement (April 14–24, n = 525), reopening (May 9–19, n = 464), and current semi-lockdown (July 20–31, n = 428), elite athletes voluntarily responded to an online survey. The self-report questionnaire was prepared to collect demographic and epidemiological variables of interest and the COVID-19-related information. All participants also completed the Profile of Mood State (POMS), General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The main result is that the training rate, mental health, life satisfaction, and positive mood have decreased during the home confinement period as compared with the reopening and semi-lockdown phases. However, the need for psychosocial services has increased during the pandemic period. The present study provides the first preliminary evidence that home confinement conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic might have negatively influenced elite athlete’s mood state, mental health, and life satisfaction, as well as training rates. Monitoring the psychological parameters of elite athletes and developing strategies to improve their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic should be on the agenda. Next studies, therefore, seem reasonable to focus on active interventions for athletes during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus Pandemic on Physical Activity, Mental Health and Quality of Life in Professional Athletes—A Systematic Review

“…After the removal of duplicated papers (48), studies were left for verification. The final inclusion criterion for the review was met by 14 articles [16,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Details were presented in the PRISMA diagram [19] (Figure 1).…”

“…The female group (n = 2742) represented the majority of subjects (51%), while the male group (n = 2692) represented a total of 49%. The athletes' age was included in 13 articles [16,[24][25][26][27][28][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Only seven studies [16,[25][26][27][28]30,32] included a comparison of the results obtained in times before and during the pandemic, while only one research article [30] characterized the results in relation to the different phases of the pandemic.…”

“…The athletes' age was included in 13 articles [16,[24][25][26][27][28][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Only seven studies [16,[25][26][27][28]30,32] included a comparison of the results obtained in times before and during the pandemic, while only one research article [30] characterized the results in relation to the different phases of the pandemic. Of all the articles, only three referred to the subjects' history of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection [27,30,31].…”

“…Among 8 cross-sectional studies included in the review, 2 articles (25%) [24,34] were of very good quality, 3 articles (38%) [30,31,36] were of good quality, and 3 articles (38%) [29,33,35] were of average quality. Of the 6 cohort studies, 4 articles (67%) [16,27,28,32] were of good quality and 2 articles (33%) [25,26] were of average quality.…”

“…Ten articles were identified reporting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on athletes' physical activity [16,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. The authors of four articles did not use standardised scales or questionnaires to assess physical activity [26][27][28]30].…”