The association between screening questions of anxiety and depression symptoms among endurance athletes

Abstract

Anxiety is an important transdiagnostic factor for depression. Our purpose was to investigate the association between anxiety and depression symptoms among endurance runners. We used a cross-sectional, cross-country, web-based research design. A web survey was used to gather information about the runners' general profile (age, sex, civil status, main sport, performance level, sports-specific characteristics, and training characteristics), anxiety symptoms (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7), and depression symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9). Network analysis was performed using the software JASP (Version 19). We sampled a total of 382 endurance men athletes, competing in ultramarathon (n = 226), marathon (n = 89), half-marathon (n = 55) or others. ANX_Q4 and DEPRESS_Q8 showed the highest strength and expected influence, indicating that are key bridge between anxiety and depressive symptoms and the rest of the network. Interventions that target relaxation capacity, body awareness, and recovery regulation could potentially attenuate the activation of both anxiety and depressive symptoms simultaneously.