Abstract
Background:
Athlete burnout, often driven by high training loads and performance pressures, is linked to negative health outcomes such as depressed mood and increased stress. The Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) measures burnout across three domains including emotional/physical exhaustion (PE), sport devaluation (SD), and reduced sense of accomplishment (RSA). Mood and burnout have been associated with excessive sport participation (ie. Specialization), but limited data exist examining the relationship between burnout and injury history, especially in young athletes. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the associations between the ABQ and previous sport-related lower extremity injury (LEI) history in adolescent athletes.
Hypothesis:
Higher levels of burnout will be associated with an increased likelihood of LEI history..
Methods:
Participants, along with their parents, completed an online questionnaire delivered through Qualtrics (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) comprising four sections: demographics, sport participation, the ABQ, and previous sport-related LEI history in the past 12 months. Inclusion criteria required that participants had engaged in competitively organized sports in the previous 12 months and were 13-18 years old at the time of survey completion. The ABQ, a reliable and valid tool, consists of 15 questions. Injuries included in the analysis were lower extremity, sport-related, and occurred within the past 12 months, further classified into overuse or acute injury mechanisms. Multivariable logistic regressions analyzed the relationships between ABQ domains and LEI (separate models for any LEI, acute LEI, and overuse LEI) while controlling for sex and age.
Results:
The analysis included 697 athletes (age=15.1±1.5 years, 62.3% male, 97.1% completion rate). Of these, 45.1% reported a previous LEI, with 16.6% and 30.8% classified as overuse and acute injuries, respectively. Physical exhaustion, as measured by the ABQ (PE mean: 2.2±0.9; SD: 1.8±0.8; RSA: 2.0±0.7) was significantly associated with acute (P=0.002, OR: 1.59 (1.18,2.15)) and overuse injuries (P=0.003, OR: 1.73 (1.21,2.48)). For any LEI, PE was positively associated with LEI (P<0.001, OR: 1.81 (1.36,2.42)) while higher levels of RSA were associated with less injury risk (P=0.03, OR: 0.65 (0.44,0.96)).
Conclusion:
This study demonstrates that burnout, particularly physical exhaustion, is associated with prior LEI history in adolescent athletes. Clinicians should monitor for signs of burnout, especially PE and low RSA. Further research is needed to confirm the directionality of this relationships and develop targeted interventions to reduce both burnout and injury in youth sports.