Air pollution and elite adolescent soccer players performance and well-being; an observational study.
Beavan A, Härtel S, Spielmann J, Koehle M. Air pollution and elite adolescent soccer players’ performance and well-being; an observational study. Environ Int. 2023 May;175:107943. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.107943. Epub 2023 Apr 27. PMID: 37146470.
Take-Home Message
Greater air pollution during a training session or game relates to impaired performance among elite adolescent soccer players.
Background
While physical activity, such as sports, is associated with positive health outcomes. However, aerobic activities, like soccer, could lead to prolonged exposure to air pollution. It remains unclear how air pollution influences an athlete’s health and performance.
Study Goal
The researchers completed an observational study to investigate whether air pollution concentrations at the time of play relate to elite adolescent soccer players’ performance.
Methods
Researchers used previously collected data from an elite U19 soccer team in Germany. The data included GPS data, wellness questionnaires, heart rate, and rate of perceived exertion for all training sessions and games. The authors then cross-referenced those sessions with air pollutant measurements from the area where the training or game occurred according to the GPS data. The authors focused on three air pollutant concentrations 1) coarse particulate matter, 2) ozone, and 3) nitrogen dioxide. All team members were included in the analysis, except for goaltenders. The data set included 26 games and 197 training sessions.
Results
Greater concentrations of coarse particulate matter related to less total distances run and higher perceived exertion scores per session. Greater levels of ozone related to less total distance run and higher average heart rate. Similarly, greater levels of nitrogen dioxide related to a greater average heart rate. Finally, the total inhaled dose of ozone and nitrogen dioxide during each session related to wellness the next morning (e.g., sleep quality, physical performance).
Viewpoints
This study supports the hypothesis that air pollutants, especially course particulate matter, ozone, and nitrogen dioxide, relate with decreased performance and health outcomes. Determining whether air pollution causes poor performance or health outcomes can be challenging. However, these soccer players experienced different levels of air pollution throughout the season, which helps us better understand the relationship between air pollution and performance or health.
Clinical Implications
Clinicians should be aware that environmental factors can impact their athletes. While most clinicians cannot change the locations where activity occurs, clinicians may monitor local air pollution levels and advocate for shorter training sessions when air pollution is high. In the United States, the US Environmental Protection Agency offers the AirNow app to report local air quality.
Questions for Discussion
Do you monitor your local air quality? If so, how does that impact plans?
Written by Kyle Harris
Reviewed by Jeffrey Driban
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My name is Alexa Rasnake, and I am a Master’s of Athletic Training student at James Madison University. I greatly enjoyed this study, as I have become very interested in air pollution and how it affects performance in athletes ever since the forest fires in Canada started this year that led to largely polluted air on the East Coast of the Unites States. After reading this study, I learned that amounts of air pollution that are well below the EU regulatory threshold can still have a negative effect on the performance and health quality of soccer athletes. This is concerning to me as a future athletic trainer, as I originally thought it was only extremely large amounts of pollution that would cause the detriments in performance and health on athletes in outside sports. As an individual, I do not monitor the air quality, however, as a future athletic trainer I will definitely implement an air quality monitoring system where my institution is, especially if I work an outside sport. In doing this, I will most likely have to make a policy and procedure handbook explaining how the outside sport’s games and practice plans will change depending on the local air quality. I believe making some form of chart stating how long athletes can practice outside in relation to a certain air quality index just as the heat policy chart is made, would be a simple way for coaches and other athletic trainers to use to plan their practices and games around the air quality. After reading this study, I believe that measuring the local air quality should be something that every athletic trainer who works with an outside sport should do. This is because one of the main domains of athletic training is injury and illness prevention and wellness promotion, and monitoring air quality is a major way to prevent illness and promote the wellness of athletes. Monitoring air quality should be a main priority of an athletic trainer to do on a daily basis just as it is a priority for them to monitor the weather temperature and status because just as these factors lead to decreases in health outcomes and performance in athletes, so does air pollution. Overall, I appreciate reading this study as I now know just how much air pollution really does affect athletes in outside sports, and how I as a future athletic trainer should implement an air quality monitoring system to ensure the safety of my athletes and to keep them performing at their highest level.
Jordan Reed- I currently do not monitor my areas air pollution/quality. I have recently been more aware of it due to the fires that have occurred in Canada. Seeing the vast effect that it not only has taken on the land but also the air. It has spread all the way to my homes state of Virginia. I think if you are living somewhere where air quality is of concern then you should be aware and monitor it on a daily basis especially if you are having Athletes participate in outdoor sports. Long term effects can occur from poor air quality and having individuals outside on a regular basis breathing it for long periods of time or short periods is not ideal. If air quality is poor than as a future Athletic Trainer there should be other places that the team/individual can participate and or practice. Making sure those spaces are available and ready to use would be preferred because air quality can change quickly.
Hi my name is Kevin Pham and I am a second year masters athletic training student. I came across this article and it immediately made me think about a topic talked about in one of our classes. There is a cycling event set to happen in China soon and some athletes are deciding to forgo there invitation due to the fact that the air pollution there is so high. They said they by participating in this event it could make their health worse rather than any benefits. This situation has also recently arose in North America with the wildfires causing air pollution throughout the east. We as clinicians need to be aware about this and take it into consideration when dealing with outdoor sports. As a future athletic trainer I would advise my team to practice indoors or elsewhere just because there’s no need to take a risk towards your health.