Category: Kinesiology & Applied Physiology
How COVID affected student-athletes
June 21, 2023 Written by Amy Cherry | Photo by Staff at the Department of Athletics
Research links slight increase in depression, COVID diagnosis in UD student-athletes
There’s no doubt that COVID-19 wreaked havoc on Americans’ mental health. In 2022, the World Health Organization reported anxiety and depression increased by 25% worldwide in the first year of the pandemic. A 2021 study published in the Journal of American Medical Association Network Open revealed more than half of American adults reported depression post-COVID-infection. The same study found the risk of symptoms remained elevated up to a year after COVID recovery, according to The New York Times.
University of Delaware student-athletes were not immune to the mental health crisis sparked by COVID, but new research recently published in the Journal of Athletic Training finds they prevailed better and avoided clinical thresholds for depression.
