An Association between Alexithymia and the Characteristics of Sport Practice: A Multicenter, Cross-Sectional Study
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Procedure
- -
- Confrontation sports (i.e., against an opponent): racket sports (tennis, badminton), fighting sports, martial arts.
- -
- Team sports: football, rugby, handball, volleyball, ice hockey.
- -
- Individual sports: swimming, climbing, golf, diving, track and field, archery, skiing, crossfit.
- -
- Endurance sports: cycling, running, rowing, trail running, ultra-trail.
- -
- Stretching/dance sports: Zumba, fitness, gymnastics, yoga, dance.
2.3. Data Analysis
2.4. Legal Obligation
3. Results
3.1. Descriptive Characteristics of Participants and Alexithymia Prevalence
3.2. Association between Level of Sports Practice and Alexithymia
3.3. Relationship between Alexithymia, Demographic Characteristics, and Sports Practice
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
TAS 20 | Toronto Alexithymia Scale |
BDI-13 | Beck’s Short Depression Inventory |
STAI | Spielberger’s State–Trait anxiety questionnaire |
SD | Standard deviation |
OR | An odds ratio |
CI | Confidence interval |
Appendix A
Amount of Sport (per Week) | <5 h | >5 h | p-Value |
---|---|---|---|
(n = 66) | (n = 122) | ||
Age | 34.9 (12.6) | 25.7 (8.9) | <0.001 |
Sex (women) | 34 (51.5) | 52 (42.6) | 0.244 |
Level of practice | |||
Recreational | 49 (74.2) | 42 (34.4) | <0.001 |
Competition | 17 (25.8) | 80 (65.6) | |
Type of sport | |||
Confrontation sports | 7 (10.6) | 11 (9.0) | 0.007 |
Stretching/dance sports | 9 (13.6) | 3 (2.5) | |
Team sports | 7 (10.6) | 31 (25.4) | |
Endurance sports | 22 (33.3) | 33 (27.0) | |
Individual sports | 22 (31.8) | 44 (36.1) | |
Depression (BDI) | |||
No | 39 (59.1) | 68 (55.7) | 0.723 |
Mild | 20 (30.3) | 36 (29.5) | |
Medium and severe | 7 (10.6) | 18 (14.8) | |
Anxiety (STAI) | |||
severe or more (>56) | 52 (78.8) | 83 (68.0) | 0.120 |
Alexithymia (TAS 20) | |||
No (<45) | 18 (27.3) | 27 (22.1) | 0.549 |
Borderline | 30 (45.5) | 53 (43.4) | |
Yes (>55) | 18 (27.3) | 42 (34.4) |
Univariate | Multivariate | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OR | [95 CI] | * p-Value | OR | [95 CI] | * p-Value | |
Age | 0.95 | [0.91–0.99] | 0.009 | 0.95 | [0.91–0.99] | 0.035 |
Sex (women) | 1.22 | [0.56–2.65] | 0.612 | - | - | - |
Amount of sport (>5 h) | 1.56 | [0.69–3.51] | 0.287 | - | - | - |
Level of practice (competition versus recreational) | 3.06 | [1.37–6.83] | 0.006 | 3.57 | [1.26–10.08] | 0.016 |
Type of sport | ||||||
Confrontation sports | 1.00 | - | - | - | - | - |
Stretching/dance sports | 0.43 | [0.07–2.54] | 0.351 | 1.09 | [0.17–7.21] | 0.927 |
Team sports | 0.51 | [0.17–1.55] | 0.234 | 0.20 | [0.05–0.78] | 0.020 |
Endurance sports | 0.34 | [0.12–0.95] | 0.040 | 0.39 | [0.13–1.22] | 0.105 |
Individual sports | 1.14 | [0.25–5.33] | 0.865 | 0.60 | [0.11–3.20] | 0.547 |
Univariate | Multivariate | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OR | [95 CI] | * p-Value | OR | [95 CI] | * p-Value | |
Age | 0.98 | [0.95–1.01] | 0.252 | 0.99 | [0.95–0.10] | 0.428 |
Sex (women) | 0.79 | [0.38–1.65] | 0.534 | - | - | - |
Amount of sport (>5 h) | 1.18 | [0.56–2.48] | 0.667 | - | - | - |
Level of practice (competition versus recreational) | 1.61 | [0.7–3.37] | 0.209 | 1.64 | [0.60–4.52] | 0.335 |
Type of sport | ||||||
Confrontation sports | 1.00 | - | - | - | - | - |
Stretching/dance sports | 0.51 | [0.13–2.79] | 0.406 | 0.66 | [0.13–3.32] | 0.613 |
Team sports | 0.33 | [0.11–0.96] | 0.042 | 0.24 | [0.07–0.80] | 0.020 |
Endurance sports | 0.28 | [0.11–0.74] | 0.010 | 0.48 | [0.13–0.99] | 0.048 |
Individual sports | 0.60 | [0.13–2.79] | 0.515 | 0.47 | [0.10–2.31] | 0.352 |
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Athletic Group | Total (n = 188) | Recreational (n = 91) | Competition (n = 97) | p-Value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Age | 28.9 (11.2) | 33.5 (12.3) | 24.7 (9.0) | <0.001 |
Sex (women) | 86 (45.7) | 45 (49.5) | 56 (57.7) | 0.380 |
Amount of sport (per week) | ||||
<5 h | 66 (35.1) | 49 (53.8) | 17 (17.5) | <0.001 |
>5 h | 122 (64.9) | 42 (46.2) | 80 (82.5) | |
Type of sport | ||||
Confrontation sports | 18 (9.6) | 4 (4.4) | 14 (14.4) | <0.001 |
Stretching/dance sports | 12 (6.4) | 11 (12.1) | 1 (1.0) | |
Team sports | 38 (20.2) | 4 (4.4) | 34 (35.1) | |
Endurance sports | 55 (29.3) | 42 (46.2) | 13 (13.4) | |
Individual sports | 65 (34.5) | 30 (33.0) | 35 (36.1) | |
Depression (BDI) | ||||
No | 107 (56.9) | 57 (62.6) | 50 (51.5) | 0.299 |
Mild | 56 (29.8) | 23 (25.3) | 33 (34.0) | |
Medium and severe | 25 (13.3) | 11 (12.1) | 14 (14.4) | |
Anxiety (STAI) | ||||
Severe or more (>56) | 135 (71.8) | 73 (80.2) | 62 (63.9) | 0.010 |
Alexithymia (TAS 20) | ||||
No (<45) | 45 (23.9) | 28 (30.8) | 17 (17.5) | 0.019 |
Non Alexithymic (n = 45) | Borderline (n = 83) | Alexithymic (n = 60) | p-Value | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Age | 32.0 (12.4) | 29.5 (11.5) | 25.9 (9.4) | 0.019 |
Sex (women) | 24 (53.3) | 49 (59.0) | 29 (48.3) | 0.443 |
Amount of sport (per week) | ||||
<5 h | 18 (40.0) | 30 (36.1) | 18 (30.0) | 0.549 |
>5 h | 27 (60.0) | 53 (63.9) | 42 (70.0) | |
Level of practice | ||||
Recreational | 28 (62.2) | 42 (50.6) | 21 (35.0) | 0.019 |
Competition | 17 (37.7) | 41 (49.4) | 39 (65.0) | |
Type of sport | ||||
Confrontation sports | 3 (6.7) | 7 (8.4) | 8 (13.3) | 0.255 |
Stretching/dance sports | 3 (6.7) | 6 (7.2) | 3 (5.0) | |
Team sports | 11 (24.4) | 14 (16.9) | 13 (21.7) | |
Endurance sports | 19 (42.2) | 21 (25.3) | 15 (25.0) | |
Individual sports | 9 (20.0) | 35 (42.2) | 21 (35.0) | |
Depression (BDI) | ||||
No | 30 (66.7) | 53 (63.9) | 24 (40.0) | <0.001 |
Mild | 13 (28.9) | 25 (30.1) | 18 (30.0) | |
Medium and severe | 2 (4.4) | 5 (6.0) | 18 (30.0) | |
Anxiety (STAI) | ||||
severe or more (>56) | 34 (75.6) | 59 (71.1) | 42 (70.0) | 0.806 |
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Proença Lopes, C.; Allado, E.; Poussel, M.; Hamroun, A.; Essadek, A.; Albuisson, E.; Chenuel, B. An Association between Alexithymia and the Characteristics of Sport Practice: A Multicenter, Cross-Sectional Study. Healthcare 2022, 10, 432. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10030432
Proença Lopes C, Allado E, Poussel M, Hamroun A, Essadek A, Albuisson E, Chenuel B. An Association between Alexithymia and the Characteristics of Sport Practice: A Multicenter, Cross-Sectional Study. Healthcare. 2022; 10(3):432. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10030432
Chicago/Turabian StyleProença Lopes, Catarina, Edem Allado, Mathias Poussel, Aghilès Hamroun, Aziz Essadek, Eliane Albuisson, and Bruno Chenuel. 2022. "An Association between Alexithymia and the Characteristics of Sport Practice: A Multicenter, Cross-Sectional Study" Healthcare 10, no. 3: 432. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10030432