ArticleBritish journal of sports medicine2024
Mental health surveillance in elite Para athletes: early identification and follow-up of athletes at risk of mental health problems.
Article in British journal of sports medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prevalence of Mental Health Symptoms and Recommendations in a Cohort of Elite Paralympic versus Olympic Athletes: The Sport Mental Health Assessment Tool 1 (SMHAT-1) in Combination with Clinical Intake Interviews.Journal of human kinetics · 2026Article
- A Three-Year Longitudinal Study of Athlete Mental Health: A Cricket Case Study.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2025Article
- Analysis of Psychological and Sleep Quality Characteristics of Young and Adult Para-Athletes with Cerebral Palsy During Competitive Period.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Injury and Illness Surveillance in Para-Cycling: A Single-Centre One-Season Prospective Longitudinal Study.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mental health in Para athletes-interaction with physical health problems in prospective monitoring.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Psychological services delivered to Team USA Olympic and Paralympic athletes after positive screen on the SMHAT-1 questionnaires.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
objectiveThere is a lack of prospective data on mental health of elite Para athletes. The objective was to identify and follow elite Para athletes at risk of mental health problems.
methodsIn a 124-week prospective cohort study, mental health of German elite Para athletes was monitored using the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4). In case of positive screening (PHQ-4≥5) over 2 weeks, a follow-up contact was conducted by a sports psychiatrist, who asked the athletes about their mental condition and sources for their mental distress and offered support.
results7543 PHQ-4 scores were obtained from 122 Para athletes with a mean weekly response rate of 84%. The PHQ-4 screening was considered positive for symptoms of depression or anxiety with a prevalence of 6.7%, affecting 48.4% (n=59) of all participants at some point during the study period. In 76.6% (n=49) of all follow-up contacts, athletes (n=34) reported at least one mental health problem, most frequently mental distress (n=31), followed by symptoms of depression (n=19) including acute suicidality (n=1). The most common mental stressors cited were related to education and problems with the team, coaches or federation. At follow-up, almost two-thirds of the athletes were either already in professional psychiatric or psychological care (25%) or were recommended to seek such care (32.8%).
conclusionOur screening and follow-up system revealed high rates of mental health problems in elite Para athletes. Programmes for early identification with mental health monitoring under the supervision of mental health professionals should be considered by sports federations for Para athletes.
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