Psychological factors and future performance of football players: A systematic review with meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: This systematic review had 3 key objectives: (1) to investigate whether psychological factors were associated with future football performance (e.g., progression to professional football, better game statistics during the next season); (2) to critically review the methodological approaches used in the included studies and summarize the evidence for the current research question; (3) to provide guidelines for future studies. DESIGN: Systematic review. METHODS: Electronic databases (SPORTDiscus, PubMed and PsycINFO) and previously published systematic and scoping reviews were searched. Only prospective studies were considered for inclusion. RESULTS: Eleven published studies that reported 39 effect sizes were included. Psychological factors; task orientation, task-oriented coping strategies and perceptual-cognitive functions had small effects on future performance in football (ds=0.20-0.29). Due to high risk of bias there were low certainty of evidence for psychological factors relationship with future football performance. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological factors investigated showed small effects on future football performance, however, there was overall uncertainty in this evidence due to various sources of bias in the included studies. Therefore psychological factors cannot be used as a sole deciding factor in player recruitment, retention, release strategies, however it would appear appropriate to include these in the overall decision-making process. Future, studies with more appropriate and robust research designs are urgently needed to provide more certainty around their actual role.

Health literacy is independently and inversely associated with carotid artery plaques and cardiovascular risk.

AIMS: Health literacy, the degree to which individuals understand and act upon health information, may have a pivotal role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), with low health literacy potentially explaining poorer adherence to prevention guidelines. We investigated the associations between health literacy, ultrasound-detected carotid atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: Baseline data (cross-sectional analysis) from a randomized controlled trial, integrated within the Västerbotten Intervention Program, Northern Sweden, was used. We included 3459 individuals, aged 40 or 50 years with ≥1 conventional risk factor or aged 60 years old. The participants underwent clinical examination, blood sampling, carotid ultrasound assessment of intima-media wall thickness (CIMT) and plaque formation, and answered a questionnaire on health literacy - the Brief Health Literacy Screen. The European Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation and Framingham Risk Score were calculated. RESULTS: About 20% of the participants had low health literacy. Low health literacy was independently associated with the presence of ultrasound-detected carotid artery plaques after adjustment for age and education, odds ratio (95% confidence interval) 1.54 (1.28-1.85), demonstrating a similar level of risk as for smoking. Health literacy was associated with CIMT in men. Low health literacy was associated with higher CVD risk scores. Sensitivity analyses with low health literacy set to 9% or 30% of the study sample, respectively, yielded essentially the same results. CONCLUSIONS: Low health literacy was independently associated with carotid artery plaques and a high level of CVD risk scores. Presenting health information in a fashion that is understood by all patients may improve preventive efforts.