College of Public Health Spotlights
When injuries take athletes out of the game, most sports fan will tell you it can have a disappointing effect on the team’s success. But sports fans are not the only ones let down. Athletes often experience emotional distress and depression following injury. Jingzhen (Ginger) Yang, assistant professor of community and behavioral health, is leading research efforts focused on the psychological effects that can plague individual athletes and the social support system necessary to help athletes get back in the game.
“Sports are so important in our society, our culture, and everyday life,” said Yang, recalling a story of young boy she knows who was devastated when an ACL injury halted his participation in high school football. “It was a big hit for this young man. Not only was he not able to contribute to the team’s success, he would lose his circle of friends.”
As a former college athlete herself, Yang was inches away from playing professional volleyball in her native China. Though her height kept her from her dream, she remembers as an athlete the frustration surrounding serious ankle and elbow injuries and her desire be back, healthy and helping her team.
“Injury is part of sports and we want to avoid injuries, but we don’t want to avoid sports,” Yang said. “In public health, we can say don’t smoke because it is bad for you, but we can’t say don’t play sports because you will get injured.”
Yang says there is evidence that depression can be a consequence of injury, but epidemiological data on post-injury depression of collegiate athletes are limited and little research has been devoted to both psychological and physical post-injury treatment.
Working with her mentor, Corinne Peek-Asa, director of the UI Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC), Yang and colleagues began a five-year study entitled “Social Support and Depression and Anxiety Following Injury in Collegiate Athletes” in 2007. It involves athletes from nine sports at The University of Iowa, Iowa State University, Michigan State University, and Purdue University. Athletes complete a baseline survey, and those injured during the study period complete follow-up, interval surveys concerning their psychological state and the type of social support they receive during recovery.
The project is based on a 2005-2006 IPRC-funded pilot project that was conducted exclusively at the UI and involved 257 student-athletes from 13 university sports. That study found 21 percent of participants reported symptoms of depression and anxiety, which can be a risk factor and a consequence of injury; more than half the athletes sustained an injury; and male and female athletes reported different social patterns.
Current research will benefit from a larger sample size and longer period of study, Yang said. The goal is to identify social support necessary to help injured athletes experience fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, which may contribute to accelerated recovery periods.
Ned Amendola, director of UI Sports Medicine and member of the advisory group for the project, said these studies may help train those in the social support system to help injured athletes recover physically and mentally.
"From the preliminary findings, I see that the support we provide after injury through an athletic trainer, sports medicine staff, and coach becomes very important after injury," he said. "Therefore, we need to be better prepared to be the support system after injury. Many of these athletes are away from home, have numerous stresses from academic workload, sport participation, and social pressures, so it is very important to us, as well as the coaches and athletes, to know how to modify and reduce some of these stresses in order to recover effectively."