1. Metabolic and psychological aspects as consequences of sports interruption in ex-elite athletes L. Stefani1, VDT. Di Tante1, MY. Matan1, GG. Galanti1 Sports Medicine Center – University of Florence –Italy
Introduction : Regular  sports  activity has  positive  impact in reducing risks factors but  few data  are available  about eventual disadvantages  when  physiologically stopped.  The  study  aims to  verify,  by  a questionnaire,  the  consequences of  sports  interruption in two different  kind  of world’s countries.
Results: Time  of inactivity was  20 yr. 4  suffered from arrhythmias , 3 had cancer ( oral cavity, breast and melanoma ), 1  had an  exercise-induced asthma , and 1 was affected by  diabetes. 3 were hypertensive and 1 had  hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia ,9 of them (45%) were smokers, no one had reported to consume alcohol. Only 12 (60% ) do not take any drugs , while 5  take a single drug and 2  more than 3 medications ;  2, > 70 yr, were  submitted  to a  coronary  bypass . 6  (30 % ) had a post- orthopedic surgery. The BMI  was of 24.8 ( ± 2.6 SD).  9  were  overweight and 1 was  obese ; 50% had a normal BMI. . For  the  anxiety/depression  balance, 6 (30 %) showed a risk of developing an anxiety disorder, 3 had an effective anxiety  (15 % ).The rest had normal values (11 % ) .Only 2  (10%) were at risk  or depression while the rest of the athletes had a normal  score.
Material Methods: 23  ex- elite athletes  (17 M  and 3 F )aged  52.4 ± 16.6 yr  including 16 Italians and 4 Israelis,  retired  from  various sports disciplines (2 sailing , 7 soccer , 3 cycling , 2  combat sports , 2 fencing , 3 swimming  and 1 tennis ) were  investigated. The EQ- 5D was used a  measure of health status and  translated into Hebrew and English  in  evaluating  any co-morbidity,  quality of life and physical and mental health. They  stopped to participate in national and international competitions  or had  significantly reduced physical activity. Morbility , self-care , usual activities , pain/discomfort were analyzed. Each parameter was  investigated  at 3  different  levels :L 1 - no difficulty, L 2 - some difficulty, L 3 -  serious difficulties. The numerical scale  ranging from 1 to 10 .A Questionnaire Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale ( HADS ) was  also used .
Conclusions: Athletes maintain a  correct lifestyle rather healthy, however they  accumulated several cardiovascular risks  factors largely represented by an increase  in BMI. A predominant difficulty is  due  to the presence  of  pain and to  those psycological  aspects particularly  depression and  anxiety , that  inducing  a reduction of quality  of life . The cause of these aspects  cannot be  exclusively  explained by "the absence of the sport," but probably has a multifactorial etiology related  to their new  life  style  habits
declaration of interest: no conflict of interest