BACKGROUND Lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (LDD) frequently occurs in athletes. Associations between LDD and trunk muscles still remain unclear. PURPOSE This study examined whether there is an association between the prevalence of LDD and the symmetry and size of the cross-sectional areas (CSAs) of the trunk muscles in combat sports athletes. METHODS Participants in this study were ...

BACKGROUND Sudden death in athletes can occur during sport activities and is presumably related to ventricular arrhythmias. There are no guidelines concerning athletes who develop ventricular arrhythmias during an exercise test. It is unclear whether they should be allowed to continue with their competitive activity or not. OBJECTIVES To investigate the long-term follow-up of athletes with ve...

OBJECTIVE To examine the prevalence of menstrual dysfunction in the total population of Norwegian elite female athletes and national representative controls in the same age group. METHODS A detailed questionnaire that included questions on training and/or physical activity patterns, menstrual, dietary, and weight history, oral contraceptive use, and eating disorder inventory subtests was admi...

Background The role of lower extremity (LE) muscle strength for predicting traumatic knee injury in youth athletes is largely unknown. Aims The aim was to investigate the influence of LE muscle strength on traumatic knee injury in youth female and male athletes. Methods 225 athletes (40% females) from sport senior high schools in Sweden were included in this case-control study. The athletes...

Athletes usually deal with injuries and pain. They seem to have similar pain threshold when compared to non-athletes, although they have higher pain tolerance and the exact cause for that is unknown. High levels for pain tolerance and control can improve performance and time for injury recovery. The literature shows that use of coping strategies can increase pain control; possible differences o...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the relationship between the occurrence of stress fracture and premenstrual syndrome (PMS)/premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) in Japanese adolescent athletes. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Osaka, Japan. PARTICIPANTS A school-based survey on menstruation and school life was conducted using a sample of 1818 Japanese female students who belonged to two p...

It has been suggested that athletes with longer fingers and larger hand surfaces enjoy stronger grip power. Therefore, some researchers have examined a number of factors and anthropometric variables that explain this issue. To our knowledge, the data is scarce. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hand dimensions, hand shape and some anthropometric characteristics on han...

The aim of this study was to compare menstruation disorders between A and B behavioral types of university female athletes and non-athletes. 250 university girl students were selected randomly and divided into two athlete and non-athlete groups in terms of systematical exercise and history during two years ago. After providing exact and required information from questionnaires, the volunteers w...

BACKGROUND The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has recently highlighted mental health concerns in student athletes, though the incidence of suicide among NCAA athletes is unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of suicide among NCAA athletes. HYPOTHESIS The incidence of suicide in NCAA athletes differs by sex, race, sport, and division. STUDY DESIGN Retr...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the electrocardiographic (ECG) characteristics of West-Asian, black and Caucasian male athletes competing in Qatar using the 2010 recommendations for 12-lead ECG interpretation by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). DESIGN Cardiovascular screening with resting 12-lead ECG analysis of 1220 national level athletes (800 West-Asian, 300 black and 120 Caucasian) and 13...