title: Too little sleep and an unhealthy diet could increase the risk of sustaining a new injury in adolescent elite athletes.
abstract: Little is known about health variables and if these variables could increase the risk of injuries among adolescent elite athletes. The primary aim was to present overall data on self-perceived stress, nutrition intake, self-esteem, and sleep, as well as gender and age differences, on two occasions among adolescent elite athletes. A secondary aim was to study these health variables as potential risk factors on injury incidence. A questionnaire was e-mailed to 340 adolescent elite athletes on two occasions during a single school year: autumn semester and spring semester. The results show that during autumn semester, the recommended intake of fruits, vegetables, and fish was not met for 20%, 39%, and 43% of the adolescent elite athletes, respectively. The recommended amount of sleep during weekdays was not obtained by 19%. Multiple logistic regression showed that athletes sleeping more than 8 h of sleep during weekdays reduced the odds of injury with 61% (OR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.16-0.99) and athletes reaching the recommended nutrition intake reduced the odds with 64% (OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.14-0.91). Our findings suggest that nutrition intake and sleep volume are of importance in understanding injury incidence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society (NVS), Division of Physiotherapy, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: von Rosen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society (NVS), Division of Physiotherapy, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.|Swedish Sports Confederation Centre, Bosön Sports Clinic, Lidingö, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frohm
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society (NVS), Division of Physiotherapy, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.|Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kottorp
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society (NVS), Division of Physiotherapy, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.|St Erik Academic Primary Healthcare Centre, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fridén
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society (NVS), Division of Physiotherapy, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heijne
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D056352:Athletes; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012307:Risk Factors; D012890:Sleep; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Children; elite sports; prevention; self-confidence; surveillance; youth