title: Assessing the Measurement Sensitivity and Diagnostic Characteristics of Athlete-Monitoring Tools in National Swimmers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess measurement sensitivity and diagnostic characteristics of athlete-monitoring tools to identify performance change.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourteen nationally competitive swimmers (11 male, 3 female; age 21.2 ± 3.2 y) recorded daily monitoring over 15 mo. The self-report group (n = 7) reported general health, energy levels, motivation, stress, recovery, soreness, and wellness. The combined group (n = 7) recorded sleep quality, perceived fatigue, total quality recovery (TQR), and heart-rate variability. The week-to-week change in mean weekly values was presented as coefficient of variance (CV%). Reliability was assessed on 3 occasions and expressed as the typical error CV%. Week-to-week change was divided by the reliability of each measure to calculate the signal-to-noise ratio. The diagnostic characteristics for both groups were assessed with receiver-operating-curve analysis, where area under the curve (AUC), Youden index, sensitivity, and specificity of measures were reported. A minimum AUC of .70 and lower confidence interval (CI) >.50 classified a "good" diagnostic tool to assess performance change.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Week-to-week variability was greater than reliability for soreness (3.1), general health (3.0), wellness% (2.0), motivation (1.6), sleep (2.6), TQR (1.8), fatigue (1.4), R-R interval (2.5), and LnRMSSD:RR (1.3). Only general health was a "good" diagnostic tool to assess decreased performance (AUC -.70, 95% CI, .61-.80).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many monitoring variables are sensitive to changes in fitness and fatigue. However, no single monitoring variable could discriminate performance change. As such the use of a multidimensional system that may be able to better account for variations in fitness and fatigue should be considered.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Crowcroft
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McCleave
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Slattery
authors.forename: Aaron J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Coutts
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D056352:Athletes; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D005221:Fatigue / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012890:Sleep; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: heart-rate variability; subjective questionnaires; swimming; training monitoring