Oguro Saki, Ojio Yasutaka, Matsunaga Asami, Shiozawa Takuma, Kawamura Shin, Yoshitani Goro, Horiguchi Masanori, Fujii Chiyo
Department of Community Mental Health and Law, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan.
Department of Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Bunkyo-ku, Japan.
BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2023 May 26;9(2):e001586. doi: 10.1136/bmjsem-2023-001586. eCollection 2023.
Mental health symptoms and mental illnesses are common in elite athletes. There is an urgent need to develop care systems to support the mental health of elite athletes. Understanding elite athletes' preferences in mental health help seeking can help explore strategies to develop such systems. Therefore, this study aims to investigate with whom/where elite athletes feel comfortable discussing mental health concerns and seeking help.
We analyse data from 219 Japanese male rugby players out of 612 players (565 Japanese, 47 foreigners) aged 18 and over who belong to the Japan Rugby Players Association using a cross-sectional design and an anonymous, web-based, self-administered questionnaire. In the questionnaire, the players are asked to rate on a 5-point Likert scale how comfortable they feel talking about their mental health concerns with affiliation/team staff, family/relatives, friends, mental health professionals, rugby-related seniors and teammates. Analysis of variance and Dunnett's test are performed to detect differences in their preferences for sources of help.
Dunnett's test shows that the mean scores for preferring to consult affiliation/team staff are significantly lower than for all the other groups (p<0.001), indicating that players are reluctant to seek help for mental health concerns from affiliation/team staff. Fewer players sought help from affiliation/team staff or mental health professionals than from other groups.
Regarding mental health concerns, for elite male rugby players as elite athletes, it can be difficult to ask for help or talk to team staff.
心理健康症状和精神疾病在精英运动员中很常见。迫切需要建立护理系统来支持精英运动员的心理健康。了解精英运动员在寻求心理健康帮助方面的偏好有助于探索建立此类系统的策略。因此，本研究旨在调查精英运动员在与谁/在哪里讨论心理健康问题并寻求帮助时会感到自在。
我们采用横断面设计，通过一份基于网络的匿名自填问卷，对日本橄榄球运动员协会中612名18岁及以上的球员（565名日本人，47名外国人）中的219名日本男性橄榄球运动员的数据进行分析。在问卷中，要求球员用5分李克特量表对他们与所属机构/团队工作人员、家人/亲属、朋友、心理健康专业人员、橄榄球相关前辈和队友谈论心理健康问题时的自在程度进行评分。进行方差分析和邓尼特检验以检测他们在帮助来源偏好上的差异。
邓尼特检验表明，倾向于咨询所属机构/团队工作人员的平均得分显著低于所有其他组（p<0.001），这表明球员们不愿就心理健康问题向所属机构/团队工作人员寻求帮助。向所属机构/团队工作人员或心理健康专业人员寻求帮助的球员比向其他组寻求帮助的球员更少。
对于作为精英运动员的精英男性橄榄球运动员来说，在心理健康问题上，向团队工作人员寻求帮助或与之交谈可能会很困难。
