CLIMB: Climbers' Longitudinal Attitudes to Injuries, Mental Health and Body Image

Plain-language summary

Eating disorders (ED) are serious mental illnesses with high mortality rates and significant impact on an individual's quality of life. These disorders are characterized by preoccupation of weight and shape, leading to restrictive eating behavior and compensatory behaviors (purging and excessive/compulsive exercise). Comorbidities with mental health problems are common. Athletes in leanness-focused sports report higher levels of EDs compared to athletes from sports without such focus . Energy Availability (EA) has been suggested the key variable in "Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports" (RED-S) with studies reporting impairment of reproductive function and bone formation. Climbing is a weight sensitive sport where athletes generally, benefit from a lean body shape and low weight, a risk factors for ED. Therefore, climbing athletes can be expected to be at high-risk to develop these conditions. To our knowledge, there are no studies on the prevalence and magnitude of EDs among climbers. Due to the overrepresentation of EDs reported in sports and the poor treatment prognosis, early detection and prevention of ED symptoms are essential. The present study will study the prevalence of ED symptoms, changes over time and trajectories of key variables along with related problem areas such as bone health and mental health problems in order to take steps towards tailored strategies for the prevention of EDs in climbing. The overall purpose of the project is to study prevalence and changes over a two-year period (with a planned follow-up period of up to five years) of eating disordered (ED) symptoms, mental health problems, overuse injuries, bone health as well as indications of relative energy deficiency (RED-S) in elite vs. sub-elite Swedish climbers. Climbers will be compared to a group of normal controls. Further, differences will be studied in groups with high vs. low levels of EDs, comparing occurrence of mental health problems, overuse injuries and bone health. Trajectories of mentioned variables over time will be analyzed.

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