Mood States, Injury Status, and Countermovement Jump Performance in Brazilian High-Level Sports.

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Exercise Psychology
• Injury Epidemiology

Background:

• Athlete monitoring systems often focus on physical metrics.
• The psychological impact on sports injuries requires further investigation.
• Understanding mood profiles may offer new avenues for injury prevention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the association between distinct mood profiles and sports injury risk.
• To investigate the relationship between mood profiles and countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJ) performance.
• To identify key psychological predictors of injury in athletes.

Main Methods:

• Cohort study of 417 Brazilian athletes (January-November 2023).
• Multi-methods approach including mood profiling and injury surveillance.
• Statistical analyses: Random forest models and Bayesian analysis.

Main Results:

• Six mood profiles identified: shark fin, iceberg, submerged, inverse iceberg, surface, and inverse Everest.
• Athletes with the 'inverse Everest' profile showed a 2.90 times higher injury risk.
• Vigour and anger were primary predictors in random forest models (AUC = 0.651).
• Mood scores did not correlate with CMJ performance.

Conclusions:

• Negative mood profiles, particularly those with elevated anger and fatigue, are linked to increased sports injury risk.
• The 'inverse Everest' mood profile is a significant indicator of higher injury probability.
• Integrating mood profile assessment into athlete monitoring may enhance injury prevention strategies.