Diet quality and the psychological response to sport injury

Abstract

Nutritional psychology, the study of the relationship between diet and mental health, is an emerging field, as is the literature on sport injury psychology, however there is little research in the field associating the two together. It is notable that both fields evidence similar psychological symptomatology in response to sport injury and poor nutrition, such as sadness, anxiety, and cognitive performance difficulties (Rollo et al., 2020; Rucklidge & Kaplan, 2020). The purpose of this thesis was to explore what relationship exists between diet quality and the psychological response to sport injury by studying collegiate athletes, a population known to be vulnerable to both frequent sport injury and uniquely poor diet quality. An electronic, anonymous survey was completed by 48 currently or recently injured NCAA Division III collegiate athletes to collect data on self-reported psychological responses to sport injury and diet quality. A combination of correlational and thematic analyses on diet quality, fear/avoidance, re-injury anxiety, perceived disablement related to well-being, and general psychological and emotional responses to sport injury explored potential relationship between the fields. Correlational analyses between diet quality and fear/avoidance, re-injury anxiety, perceived disablement, and general psychological responses to sport injury showed no significant relationships. The negative correlations tended toward the expected direction associating poorer diet quality with greater negative psychological responses to sport injury, with respect to anxiety-related concerns. Thematic analysis revealed re-injury anxiety, uneasiness and stress, athletic identify concerns, disappointment, and frustration as key and common emotional responses to sport injury. Implications for future research include study designs exploring relationships between diet quality and psychological response to sport injury include using intact measures focusing on specific psychological constructs such as anxiety, assessing only currently injured athletes, and selecting specific sport cultures such as aesthetic or combat sports. These approaches may ultimately yield results about specific areas in which diet quality relates to recovery from sport injuries that could lead to more holistic treatment outcomes for collegiate athletes.