Tag Archive for 'pandemia'

The pandemic negative effects on physical activity on youth

Published on July 26, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: attività fisica, Covid-19, pandemia, sedentarietà, sport.

Global Changes in Child and Adolescent Physical Activity During the COVID-19 Pandemic. A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Ross D. Neville, Kimberley D. Lakes,Will G. Hopkins, Giampiero Tarantino, Catherine E. Draper, Rosemary Beck, Sheri Madigan.

JAMA Pediatr. Published online July 11, 2022.

This meta-analysis provides timely estimates of changes in child and adolescent physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. By pooling estimates across 22 studies from a range of global settings that included 14 216 participants, we demonstrated that the duration of engagement in total daily physical activity decreased by 20%, irrespective of prepandemic baseline levels. Through moderation analysis, we showed that this reduction was larger for physical activity at higher intensities. Specifically, the average reduction in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day during COVID-19 (17 minutes) represents a reduction of almost one-third of the daily dose of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity recommended for young children (~3-5 years) and school-going children and adolescents (~5-18 years) to promote good physical health and psychosocial functioning.

We found that longer durations between pre- and post-assessment were associated with larger reductions in physical activity. It is possible that the cumulative toll of the pandemic has compounded over time to negatively affect children and adolescents,⁶³ including their levels of physical activity. This aligns with a recent meta-analysis on youth mental health,¹⁸ which found that the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms increased across time during the pandemic. The temporal aspect of our findings is also broadly in line with research on the psychology of habit,⁶⁴^,65 which suggests that habits are contingent on the types of stability cues that have been significantly disrupted during the pandemic. Most of the known multicomponent, family, social, and community support mechanisms of child and adolescent physical activity⁶⁶ were unavailable during COVID-19. This undoubtedly created a “perfect storm” for habit discontinuity⁶⁵ in the context of child and adolescent physical activity.⁶⁷ Research has also shown that young children with consistent access and permission to use outdoor spaces during COVID-19 had better physical activity outcomes.⁵⁰ These children exhibited smaller reductions in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and were approximately 2 times more likely to meet physical activity guidelines during COVID-19. Taken together, changes in restrictions and the unpredictability of access to typical physical activity outlets for children and adolescents have likely contributed to changes in their physical activity levels and to greater engagement in displacement activities (eg, screen time¹²) that risk promoting an increasingly sedentary “new normal.”⁶⁸

We found that reductions in physical activity during the pandemic were larger for samples at higher latitudes, corresponding to regions of the globe where restrictions coincided with a seasonal transition into the summer months. This finding is consistent with prepandemic data showing that unstructured summer days during school holidays can have negative associations with both academic and physical health behaviors,⁶⁹^-71 often referred to as the “summer slide.”⁷² A recent estimate of such a summertime reduction of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of 11.4 minutes⁶⁹ is substantially lower (~ 50%) than the pooled estimate from our meta-analysis, however. This suggests a substantial intensification during the pandemic of the usual summer slide into physical inactivity,⁷⁰ which warrants particular attention from policy makers seeking to help children “sit less and play more,”⁷³ as targeted initiatives will be needed as children emerge into the summer months.

There is an urgent need for public health initiatives to revive young people’s interest in, and support their demand for, physical activity during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of practice implications, research on physical activity promotion and maintenance during childhood consistently shows that multicomponent, multimodal, and multioutcome interventions work best.⁷^,66 Therefore, public health campaigns can have greater effect if they are child-centered, target a variety of physical activity modalities, and incorporate the family unit and wider community as co-constructors of lasting physical activity behavior change.

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Home advantage remains in football matches played without spectators

Published on April 7, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: giocare in casa, pandemia, spettatori.

Wunderlich F, Weigelt M, Rein R, Memmert D (2021) How does spectator presence affect football? Home advantage remains in European top-class football matches played without spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS ONE 16(3): e0248590.

We are used to thinking that spectators are the main reason for the advantage of playing home games. This research highlights that the effect of the lack of spectators due to the pandemic is less than we would expect.

More than 1,000 professional games played without spectators and more than 35,000 games with spectators before the pandemic in top soccer leagues in six countries -Spain, England, Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Turkey- during the 2010/11 to 2019/20 seasons were analyzed.
The absence of spectators resulted in a slight decrease in home advantage, as measured by the number of goals and points scored. The difference is not statistically significant.

Over the last 10 seasons, with spectators, home teams won 45%, away teams won 28% while 27% were tied.
During the pandemic, home teams won 43% of games, away teams won 32% and ties were 25%.

Overall, the study highlights the role of other factors behind the “home advantage” phenomenon, such as a team’s familiarity with its facility, as well as defense of its territory.

Travel fatigue was advanced as an explanation, but a separate analysis was conducted that examined differences in outcomes before and during the pandemic among German amateur teams, which generally play within the same city, ande found that home advantage was comparable to professional teams that travel much farther.

While the teams did not suffer much in their overall results, there were a few aspects that declined significantly. Home teams experienced a statistically significant decrease in measures of game dominance assessed in the number of shots.
Additionally, home teams received fewer disciplinary sanctions than away teams.

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Psychopandemic: which are the solutions

Published on March 5, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis, Tiro a volo, Webinar and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: pandemia.

Beyond the widespread evidence, there are now numerous surveys that show us the data of the so-called psychopandemic, with a generalized increase of mental problems in the population of all ages. Here are the main points of the issue taken from David Lazzari, President of the Italian Register of Psychologists.

WHO already before the pandemic had highlighted that 17 million Italians suffered from psychological disorders, more than one in four Italians and in half of the cases these problems arise around the age of 14 years (Kastel 2019).
The highest incidence is in at-risk groups such as people returning from intensive care, those affected by Covid, the physically ill who could not be treated for fear of contagion or limitations in access, people who have lost a relative in special situations, “caregivers” who assist patents or people with diseases or disabilities, people with greater or previous psychological fragility, health workers in burnout.
Independent surveys carried out in various countries have converged in saying that one person in three today would need psychological listening and support, also to avoid the development of more serious and costly disorders.
In a recent survey conducted by the Study Center of the Italian Register of Psychologists, 47% of parents with children 3-14 years old report emotional problems, and 62% of children report negative psychological states.
Among adolescents, 6 out of 10 say they feel stressed and one out of three would like psychological support (Unicef 20.11.20).
7 out of 10 people in these cases prefer psychological help to medication (McHugh 2013). There is evidence of greater and longer effectiveness of psychotherapy for most of these situations (Huhn et al. 2014, Cuijpers et al. 2014, Lazzari 2020).
Psychological interventions have a restructuring action because they promote people’s resources and prevent from relapse. We are talking about important differences that are appreciated especially in the medium and long term (Harryotaki et al. 2014, Zhang et al. 2018).
A fact confirmed by economic cost-benefit analyses, which tell us that 5 years after treatment, psychotherapy saves 1481 euros per person in health and 2058 euros to society compared to drugs, proving to be economically more advantageous in 75% of cases (Rossi et al. 2019).
All this without counting the possible side effects of widespread drug abuse.
Unfortunately, the problem is structural: it is the system that feeds this situation, because while drugs are reimbursed by the SSN or free (some categories) and easily available, psychological treatments are not only not reimbursable but are rare commodities in the public. With a psychologist and psychotherapist for every 12,000 inhabitants in the Italian NHS, access to these therapies in the public is for very few and in the private sector there are now fewer who can afford treatment.
Psychology and psychotherapy are still designed for those who can pay for them.

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New ebook: the pandemic in sport

Published on February 3, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Libri, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: Covid-19, ebook, pandemia, sport.

The year 2020 is gone and it will be remembered as the worst year of the last 75 years, for having involved the entire world in a crisis, initially a health crisis, which became a planetary pandemic that has disrupted the lives of every person, causing millions of victims, destroying a significant part of the world economy and radically changing the way we work and interact with others. I am a psychologist and I deal with sport and the well-being of those who practice it, whether they are champions and professionals or individuals who carry out this activity as a lifestyle. The pandemic has forced us to stay home, physical distancing and eliminate sports activity as we knew it. Managing movement and sporting activity has become a source of additional stress that has produced negative psychological effects on people who even engage in recreational activity, among athletes who play sports professionally, and people with disabilities who benefit so obviously from engaging in sports on an ongoing basis.

Starting from these considerations, I began to talk about this situation on my blog, in order to better understand the effects of the pandemic on people and to provide guidance on how to practice sports, respecting the rules to cope with and reduce the possibility of contagion. The book represents a journey that started at the beginning of March, which has led me to talk about this issue until now that we are approaching the beginning of the new year. It talks about the mindset of those who don’t follow the rules, how one can deal with the anxiety brought about by this radical change in daily life, how one can train while staying at home and the reasons why it is good to be active and not suffer this situation. In addition, guidance is given to coaches on how not to give up their leadership role and to athletes on how to train in the absence of competition. Finally, I present practical tips and ways to think about and experience this unique and totally unexpected time.

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Shooting: pandemic psychological aspects

Published on January 20, 2021 in Allenatori, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Stress and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: coronavirus, Covid-19, pandemia.

The psychological aspects of a nightmare year. Online in the Italian magazine of the shooting federation.

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How my job is changed in this period of pandemia

Published on December 16, 2020 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: Covid-19, digitale, lavoro, pandemia, psicologo, video.

Pandemia has changed the way we work and maintain social relationships, it has been, so far, 10 months where we have trained ourselves to change maybe even initially against our will.

My work is currently only online. I’m on WhatsApp on some days even for 5/6 hours, meetings with colleagues and international conferences are only on Zoom, I made short videos of a few minutes to teach specific breathing techniques and concentration training. Lessons and university exams only on the platforms provided.

I carry out a professional activity requiring direct contact with people, while in these months it has happened almost exclusively through smartphones and pc. What are the costs and benefits of this approach? Certainly it requires a better organization of work and a greater investment of time. This happens because if you are not in contact with the athletes during training, you don’t have the ongoing relationship that comes from being present at competitions and training. There is no longer the possibility to interact with them and the coaches in an informal way and in presence on the field.

Instead, to be able to interact, specific moments had to be scheduled, generally after lunch or after afternoon training. In addition, for some of the exercises I proposed, I made videos of no more than two minutes, sent via smartphone, that constituted real tutorials on a topic of psychological interest. This kind of communication represented a further element of novelty for me, whose usefulness I nevertheless experienced, since the athletes had instructions on video to review according to their needs.

The costs concern the impossibility of carrying out interventions in the here and now, that is, on events that have just happened, but we always work on the report of athletes and coaches. Another limitation relates to the absence of the psychologist from the interpersonal dynamics between coach and athlete during training and the extremes of their interactions on factors almost exclusively technical and tactical and physical improvement, which on the other hand are the purpose of the work of coaches and physical trainers. The accentuation of attention on these factors can lead in some cases to give less importance to the mental component of training, putting in the background the awareness that it is the mental attitude (i.e. how one lives training) that determines the quality of the sport and motor commitment and its success.

We will see in the coming months how we will emerge from the pandemia and how our work will be changed. My feeling is that it has changed a lot and that digital will become a significant aspect of the psychologist’s work as well.

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Aware of our preconceived thoughts, delete them

Published on November 20, 2020 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: attribuzione, Covid-19, pandemia, pregiudizi, spiegazione.

Every day we try to explain our performances and what is happening around us. This trend is particularly perceived when we have to explain unexpected events to ourselves.

The pandemic we are experiencing this year is an event that falls in this last situation. One wonders how it was possible for this virus to spread. Who could have ever imagined that we were living in this situation as it was like the cholera and plague epidemics of the past centuries, and that science and our health care systems were completely unprepared.

In these times, we too often fall into providing explanations based on our own prejudices. We told ourselves that it was the fault of the Chinese and that the virus had been built in the laboratory or that it was the fault of the migrants who spread it because they are dirty. Others have chosen different explanations, the deniers have chosen the defense mechanism that is called denial. Still others thought that the virus was a justification for governments to control people’s lives, so they also rebelled against the rules of their governments, so they did not put on the mask and did not wash their hands.

How to change? How to accept reality? It would take a period of re-attributive training to learn how to shift the origin of our explanations from a superficial, selfish and prejudiced interpretation to one based on reality analysis, on data and not on subjective impression.

We would need this approach to regain control of our emotions, bringing our attention to those favoring the acquisition of self-control and not based on fear but on the responsibility that everyone has towards everyone.

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