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The relationship between individual and team athletes’ anxiety

to catch the novel coronavirus (covid-19) and sleep quality

Osman Yoka

, Keziban Yoka

, Mehmet Behzat Turan

, Eyüp Güler

Erciyes University, Institute of Health Sciences, Kayseri, Turkey.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0585-0923 yokakeziban@gmail.com

Niğde Ömer Halis Demir University, Institute of Social Sciences, Niğde, Turkey.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0585-0923 yokaosman@gmail.com

Erciyes University, Institute of Health Sciences, Kayseri, Turkey.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5332-803X behzatturan@erciyes.edu.tr

Erciyes University, Institute of Health Sciences, Kayseri, Turkey.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0891-0036 glereyup@gmail.com

Abstract

Aim: to examine the relationship between individual and team athletes’ anxiety to catch the novel

coronavirus (Covid-19) and sleep quality according to different variables. Method: a total of 429

volunteer athletes (262 female and 167 male) took a part in the research who are actively involved

in sports. Research data were collected through a questionnaire. The survey questions were

delivered to the participants by the researcher through face-to-face interview method and via

online survey. As for data collection tools, Athletes’ Anxiety to Catch Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Demographic Information Form prepared by

the researcher were used. The obtained data were analyzed with the SPSS package program. In

addition to descriptive statistics, the normality structure of the distributions was examined through

skewness and kurtosis tests. In the comparison of data between two variables, t-test was applied

in independent groups, and one-way analysis of variance was applied in the comparison of three

or more variables. In addition, Pearson Moments Correlation test and regression analysis were

applied. Results: no significant difference was observed between profession, marital status, age of

starting sports, smoking status, sports branch and anxiety to catch Covid-19 and PSQI. At the same

time, while there was a significant difference between gender, education level, income level and

anxiety to catch Covid-19, no significant difference was found with PSQI. In addition, while a

significant difference was observed between age and PSQI, there was no significant difference

between the anxiety to catch Covid-19. A positive and significant relationship was found between

the PSQI scores of the athletes and the anxiety scores to catch Covid-19. Therefore, we can say

that as the anxiety levels of catching the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) increase, their sleep quality

decreases. Furthermore, it has been determined that the anxiety to catch Covid-19 has a positive

and significant predictive power on PSQI. Conclusion: considering these results, a psychosocial

Viref Revista de Educación Física

Instituto Universitario de Educación Física y Deporte

ISSN 2322-9411 • Enero-Marzo 2022 • Volumen 11 Número 1

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support program should be prepared and implemented to help control the anxiety level of catching

Covid-19 and increase the low quality sleep it causes.

Keywords: Athlete, Covid-19, Anxiety, Sleep Quality.

Introduction

Pandemics, wars and natural disasters in today’s world, or in other words, positive or negative,

sudden and unexpected changes in people’s lives cause an increase in people’s fear and anxiety.

The most striking of these changes is the Covid-19 outbreak, which was declared as a pandemic by

the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020 (Gallego et al., 2020). Covid-19 is called

enveloped single-stranded positive RNA virus. Since they are viruses with high mutation abilities

that are seen in wild animals and transmitted to humans, RNA viruses are defined as pathogens

with a high epidemic rate (Carrasco et al., 2017). All countries have been struggling with a major

epidemic caused by Covid-19 for over a year. Beside this, the epidemic has taken the whole world

under its influence in a short time (WHO, 2020). The first case in Turkey was reported on March

11 (Ministry of Health, 2020). The global epidemic first appeared in China. On 31 December 2019,

pneumonia cases of unknown origin were reported in Wuhan city and a novel coronavirus that had

not been detected in humans before was identified (WHO, 2020). The novel Coronavirus (Covid-

19) disease is transmitted to healthy individuals by the inhalation of droplets spread by the

coughing and sneezing of Covid-19 patients. In addition, it is known that droplets emitted from

Covid-19 patients fall on the surface and these droplets are transmitted from person to person by

touching the face, eyes, nose or mouth of healthy individuals (Ministry of Health, 2020). Due to

this unexpected Covid-19 threat, almost all of the countries in the world went into a sudden and

unprecedented red alert state.

While governments are implementing various prevention and restriction measures, the sports

institution, which has become a part of our lives, has also been under the influence of the epidemic.

Sport is a universal product in which individuals around the world engage in activities, watch and

consume (Ratten & Ratten, 2011). Considering the sport factor in its impact dimension, the sport

sector, which is an important sector in economic, social, psychological, health, cultural and

commercial dimensions, has faced a unprecedented crisis. Many national and international sports

organizations have been postponed or cancelled. This situation adversely affected both the

physical and mental health of the athletes. The economic losses caused by the epidemic, the

anxiety of the future, the fear to catch Covid-19, the fear of the effect of Covid-19 on sports success

cause an increase in the level of anxiety on the athletes.

The origin of the concept of anxiety is “anxietas” in ancient Greek, meaning fear, curiosity and

worry (Köknel, 1988). Anxiety can be defined as a state of expectation that leads to unhappiness

about the future, a state of excitement mixed with a feeling of insecurity, or it can also be defined

as a feeling experienced in the face of a danger arising from the outside world or any situation that

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is perceived and interpreted as dangerous by the person (Alisinanoğlu & Ulutaş, 2003). There are

two types of anxiety in human life, normal and pathological. Normal anxiety is experienced when

we are faced with realities such as old age, illness and death. If it occurs at levels that will affect

the daily functions and performance of the person, it is considered as pathological anxiety

(Alisinanoğlu & Ulutaş, 2003). One of the major problems of anxious people is sleep problem. Sleep

is a significant process in which body tissues get rid of metabolic processes that are active during

the day and prepare the body for effective physiological performance for the next day (Aldabal &

Bahammam, 2011). It is thought that sleep has a fundamental role in human health for physical,

cognitive performance and well-being (Simpson et al., 2016). In addition, it would not be wrong to

think that physical performance will be greatly affected by sleep, as it affects cardiorespiratory

endurance (Azboy & Kaygısız, 2009), neuromotor performance (Boonstra et al., 2007), mood,

focus, and metabolism (Luke et al., 2011).

Sleep quality is a status when a person wakes up feeling fit and on formed and ready for a new day.

Sleep quality is affected by various factors such as lifestyle, environmental factors, work, social life,

economic situation, general health, stress and anxiety (Şenol et al., 2012). While it is known by

experts and athletes that quality sleep may have certain effects on sports performance, there are

relatively few studies on sleep quality (Venter, 2014). When the relevant literature is examined,

studies reporting that there are serious concerns that the epidemic will affect the performance of

athletes (Brito et al., 2021; Paoli & Musumeci, 2020; Rajpal et al., 2021), studies examining the

level of anxiety (Aksu, 2018; Karabulut et al., 2013; Seçer & Sevinç, 2021), studies examining the

anxiety to catch Coronavirus (Batu & Aydın, 2020; Polatcan & Kaptangil, 2021; Şahinler & Ulukan,

2020; Yıldız, 2020) were observed.

In the light of present information, the main purpose of sports is to protect the health of athletes,

to take preventive measures and to ensure the development of sports. Measures to be taken from

this point of view are important in terms of protecting the athlete and preventing the spread of

the Coronavirus. Moreover, the importance of protecting the health of athletes was emphasized

in the statements made by international sports organizations. In this universal crisis, it is thought

that the anxiety to catch the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) will increase and this will affect the sleep

quality of the athletes who play in big clubs and will struggle on the field with the effect of the

detection of Covid-19 cases in popular athletes. Therefore, the aim of present study is to examine

the relationship between individual and team athletes’ anxiety to catch the novel Coronavirus

(Covid-19) and sleep quality according to different variables.

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Method

1. Research Ethics

Since the human phenomenon should be used in the study and individual rights should be

protected; scientific ethics, principles and rules were followed during the study, and the ethics

committee permission was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Erciyes University, dated

27.04.2021 and decision number 2021/231, before our research.

2. Research Model

The research was designed according to the quantitative research model, and a method for

descriptive and correlational survey aiming to reveal the current situation was used. Correlational

survey model is a research model that aims to determine whether there is a change between two

or more variables and the degree of change (Karasar, 2016).

3. Research Group

The sample group of this research consists of 429 athletes, 167 males and 262 females, from

individual and team athletes living in Kayseri city. In the selection of the sample, the convenience

sampling technique, which is one of the non-random sampling methods, was used (Yıldırım &

Şimşek, 2018).

4. Data Collection

As for data collection tool, questionnaire method was used. The questionnaires were applied to

the participants by the researchers using face-to-face interviews and online questionnaires. The

data collection tools used in the research, which was prepared by the researcher, consist of 3 parts:

a) the Demographic Information Form, b) the Athletes’ Anxiety to Catch Novel Coronavirus (Covid-

19) Scale, and c) the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

a. Demographic Information Form

The demographic information form prepared by the researcher to collect information consists

of variables such as age, marital status, education level, age of starting sports, smoking status,

gender, profession, sports branch, income level.

b. Athletes’Anxiety to Catch the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Scale (AACNCS)

In the study, Athletes’Anxiety to Catch the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Scale developed by

Tekkurşun et al. (2020) was used. The scale consists of 2 sub-dimensions as individual anxiety

(11 items) and socialization anxiety (5 items) with a total of 16 items. AACNCS is a five-point

Likert type. The items were listed as “Strongly Disagree”, “Disagree”, “Undecided”, “Agree”,

“Strongly Agree”; and were rated as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Only 2

item in the scale contains negative

statements. The lowest score that can be obtained from the Individual Anxiety factor

consisting of the first 11 items is 11 and the highest score is 55. The lowest score that can be

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obtained from the Socialization Anxiety factor consisting of the last 5 items is 5 and the highest

score is 25. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient calculated for the entire scale is .917 (Tekkurşun

et al., 2020).

c. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)

It was developed by Buysse et al. in 1989 and the validity and reliability of the index was

performed by Ağargün et al. in 1996. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient was found to be .80. The

PSQI scale consists of seven subcategories (subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep

duration, sleep efficiency, sleep disturbance, use of sleep pill, and assessment of daytime

functions) and 19 items. The sum of all sub-dimensions is evaluated with a total sleep quality

score ranging from 0 to 21, and high scores represent low sleep quality. PSQI total score clearly

distinguishes those with good sleep quality (PUKI total score ≤5) from those with poor sleep

quality (PUKI >5) (Buysse, 1989; Ağargün et al., 1996).

5. Analysis of Data

The obtained data were analyzed with SPSS package program. As a result of the analysis,

descriptive statistics are given as f and % distribution. The normality distributions of the data were

tested with the Kolmogrov Smirnov Test and the skewness and kurtosis tests, and it was

determined that the data showed normal distribution. With these results, it was decided to use

parametric statistical test methods in our study. In the comparison of the data obtained between

two variables, t-test was applied in independent groups, while one-way analysis of variance was

applied in the comparison of three or more variables. Tukey test was applied to determine the

difference in the comparisons made in three or more groups. In addition, Pearson Moments

Correlation test and regression analysis were applied.

Findings

Table 1. Descriptive statistics-frequency and percentage values.

Variable