ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2024
Midlife health crisis of former competitive athletes: dissecting their experiences via qualitative study.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07502742 (Pain in Athletes INtervention), which is not on this map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Pain in Athletes INtervention (PAIN): A Randomized Crossover Clinical Trial in Aging Former Athletes, Master's Athletes, and Nonathletes
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Athletic identity and sport injury: a systematic review and meta-aggregation.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- The paradox of sport: adolescent athletes are highly sedentary across competition, practice, and rest days.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Navigating Nutrition Beyond Elite Sport: A Qualitative Exploration of Experiences After Retirement.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Do sports develop leadership? The impact of college varsity sports on leadership capacity and self-efficacy.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Transitioning to life after sport: empowering former college varsity athletes to live more healthfully.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Activity levels across the intensity spectrum in athletes: a systematic review protocol.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
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,
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.