SOREN Student Sports & Health Open Researches e-Journal: New-Approaches

Background and aim: The athletic performance not only under the influence of a training program but several factors are involved that nutrition is one of the most effective. The present study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and nutritional habits of boys and girls handball players in Fars province.

Methods: The population of this study were included all athletes participating in the League Handball Fars province of which 200 were selected randomly as the sample. In order to analyze the data, SPSS software version 22, independent t-test, t-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used and the significance level was α=0.05.

Results: The results showed that there is no significant difference in nutritional knowledge (p=0.64) between boys and girls. But there is a significant difference between the dietary habits between boys and girls, so that boys are more likely to be affected by food habits than girls (p=0.03). There is also a significant positive correlation between nutritional habits and nutritional knowledge (p=0.001) in boys and girls athletes.

Conclusion: It seems nutritional knowledge is the same for girls and boys in handball players of Fars province. However, boys are more likely to be affected by food habits than girls. Also, with increasing nutritional knowledge, the nutritional habits of girls and boys of handball will improve.

Background and aim: Lifestyle changes as a result of the global outbreak of COVID-19 have overshadowed athletes and have had psychological consequences. The aim of the current study is psychological evaluation of the quarantine-induced stress during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak among athletes.

Methods: This study is descriptive-analytical and was cross-sectionally carried out. The statistical population of the study was all professional and amateur athletes in the country that 389 people were selected as a sample using the snowball sampling method (79 children from 8 to 12 years old, 143 adolescents from 13 to 17 years old, 167 adults aged 18 to 67). The measuring instruments were the revised Impact of Event Scale (IES). Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (One-way ANOVA) were used to analyze the research data.

Results: Results showed that there is no significant difference between children and adolescents in terms of gender, geographical area, type of sport, and level of competition. There was a significant difference between the genders for perceived ‎stress impact total score (TS; p=0.02) and also in arousal and avoidance behavior only in adults, with higher scores in women (p=0.021). Between individual and team sports, significant differences were found in TS (p=‎‎0.010) and arousal (p=0.032), with higher results in individuals. Elite athletes scored significantly higher in arousal (p=0.002). Significant ‎differences were found between gender in adolescents for avoidance behavior (p=0.009), and ‎between competitive levels in children, for annoying thoughts (p=0.001).

Conclusion: This evidence raises our awareness of the psychological distress effects of COVID-19 lockdown among athletes, and suggested applying special protocols for the well-being and health of athletes during the start of their sports activities, depending on gender, type of sport, and level of competition.

Background and aim: Nesfatin-1 response to one session resistance exercise in young and middle-aged men is unclear. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of acute resistance exercise on the Nesfatin-1 response in young and middle-aged men.

Methods: For this purpose, 11 young men (20-30 years) and 10 middle-aged men (40-50 years) participated in this study. All subjects performed an acute resistance exercise test session (performing 4 sets at 6 stations: chest press, leg press, leg extension, shoulder bar, arm curl, seated lat pull-down with the intensity of 60% one repetition maximum). Blood samples were taken before and immediately after exercise to measure the concentration of Nesfatin-1 serum. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to evaluate the significance of intra-group and inter-group changes. Statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS₂₂ at a significance level of p<0.05.

Results: The results showed that resistance exercise had no significant effect on Nesfatin-1 levels after exercise and there was no significant difference between Nesfatin response to resistance exercise in two different age groups (P>0.05).

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that one session of moderate intensity resistance exercise did not have a significant effect on the serum levels of Nesfatin -1 in young and middle-aged men. There was also no significant difference in Nesfatin response to acute exercise between young and middle-aged men.

Background and aim: The ability to rehabilitate people with autism is another aspect of occupational therapy that plays an important role in improving the quality of life of these people. Direct cranial electrical stimulation (TDCS) is used as a complementary therapy in patients. This study was performed to investigate the increased effect of TDCS of the skull combined with routine occupational therapy on the flexibility of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (7-12 years).

Methods: The type of research was a double-blind randomized pre/post-test clinical trial. The sample consisted of 20 boys with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups of 10 intervention and control. The intervention group received 10 sessions of occupational therapy with 10 sessions of TDCS for three weeks and the control group received 10 sessions of occupational therapy and 10 sessions of TDCS as sham. In this study, flexibility variables were measured and compared with the Wisconsin Manual Cards Test. Paired t-test, analysis of covariance (ANOVA) was used to compare the studied variables.

Results: The results showed that the mean and standard deviation of the studied variables in the intervention group were not significantly different from the control group. However, the above intervention was significantly effective in improving flexibility (P<0.001) in the intervention group.

Conclusion: Direct electrical stimulation of the skull with routine occupational therapy on the executive functions of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder is not significantly different from conventional occupational therapy.

Background and aim: Aging is a biological phenomenon that manifests in the way of organism lives and its psychological, social status over time; therefore, paying attention to the needs of this stage of life is a social necessity. The goal of this research was to evaluate the effect of the 8-week exercise therapy in water in two different depths on static and dynamic balance in elderly women.

Methods: The research was semi-experimental. Forty-five elderly women were selected from district 1 of Tehran, who after taking a pre-test in static and dynamic balance variables were randomly divided into three groups of exercises in the deep part (N=15), exercises in the shallow part (N=15), and a control group (N=15). After dividing the subjects into relevant groups, the participants performed the relevant exercises for 8 weeks, and at the end, all subjects underwent post-test experiments. The research data were statistically analyzed by the paired (t) test and the covariance analysis test.

Results: The results showed that after doing exercise therapy interventions in water, there was a significant improvement in static and dynamic balance in the two intervention groups in comparison to the control group (P<0.05). Also, there was no significant difference in the static and dynamic balance between the two exercise therapies in deep and shallow water (P>0.05), and both groups equally improved static and dynamic balance in elderly women.

Conclusion: According to the obtained results, exercise therapy in water can be considered as one of the methods to improve static and dynamic balance in the elderly.

Background and aim: Numerous personal, environmental, social, and family factors are associated with the development of healthy and unhealthy behaviors in adolescents. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between social support and body mass index of adolescents in terms of the mediating role of health-related behaviors.

Methods: In this study was used cross-sectional design with a correlation strategy. The statistical population includes male and female high school students of public schools in the eastern cities of Mazandaran province in 2019-2020. According to Munro, 520 students were selected based on the sample size ratio per item (least 5 to 1) and taking into account the sample loss based on the multi-stage random cluster sampling method. Social support, physical activity for adolescents, sedentary behavior, frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption, and socio-economic status questionnaires and also calculation of body mass index were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by U Mann-Whitney, Spearman correlation coefficient tests, and structural equation modeling using SPSS₂₅ and PLS₃ software.

Results: The results showed that boys have higher social support than girls (P=0.01). There is also a significant relationship between social support and body mass index (P=0.01). The mediating role of health-related behaviors including sedentary behavior (β=-0.082, P=0.01), Physical activity (β=-0.057, P=0.01) and fruit and vegetable consumption (β=-0.086, P=0.01) were confirmed in the relationship between social support and body mass index.

Conclusion: Specialists interested in planning for the prevention, control, and treatment of adolescent obesity can use the direct and indirect role of social support and health-related behaviors to control body weight.

Background and aim: One of the personality traits that can somehow be effective in reducing the stress of student life is optimism. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physical activity on improving optimism among female students of Jahrom University.

Methods: The study was descriptive and causal-comparative. The population was all female students of Jahrom University which 90 female students were selected by random cluster (45 physical education students and 45 non-physical education students). To collect information, demographic characteristics questionnaire and optimism questionnaire were used. In order to analyze the data, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, independent t-tests, and SPSS software (version 16) were used.

Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference between active and inactive girls in the scales of relationship with God (P= 0.001), relationship with others (P= 0.001), relationship with nature (P= 0.001). In the self-relationship scale, although active girls scored better, but there was no significant difference between active and inactive girls (P= 0.06).

Conclusion: In general, the results showed that active girls have a higher degree of optimism. It means that physical education courses and the level of physical activity of girls in the field of physical education have affected their optimism.

Background and aim: Exercise can have beneficial effects on improving inflammation and the function of various organs in the body. Several studies have shown the beneficial effects of exercise on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and its immunopathological indicators. In this study, we aim to evaluate the effects of 10 weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) has on serum cortisol levels in patients with IBD.

Methods: In this study, 24 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) with the criteria of no smoking, no alcohol, no antibiotics, and no regular exercise in the past three months were included. Patients were randomly divided into control and exercise groups. The training program consisted of 10 weeks of HIIT. Blood samples were taken before and after the training program to measure cortisol serum levels.

Results: Significant reduction was observed in the serum cortisol levels of UC patients after training (mean 14.84 ± 7.52 vs. 9.83 ± 3.6, P-value=0.004). No signs of disease activation in the exercise group were observed.

Conclusion: This study reports that a 10-week regular HIIT was effective to lower serum cortisol levels in IBD patients. Our results also indicate that supervised exercise in adults with mild to moderate UC can have a beneficial impact on reducing IBD symptoms.