The psychological impact of injury: effects of prior sport and exercise involvement

Objectives-To test the assumption that the psychological impact of injury v aries with involvement in sport and exercise, and that those who are more i nvolved in sport and exercise before injury would experience greater negati ve affect and retarded recovery. Method-Patients attending for physiotherapy completed a battery of question naires including measures of mood and perceived recovery; at the beginning, middle, and end of formal rehabilitation. Complete data were available for 93 patients. Results-Those who were more involved in sport and exercise before injury re gistered higher levels of confusion and perceived their recovery to be less , possibly reflecting greater information needs and a greater mismatch betw een current status and that before injury in the athletic sample. Reported negative affect did not vary with sport and exercise involvement. Conclusions-Incapacitation for those not involved in sport and exercise bef ore injury may have much the same affective impact as it does for those wit h considerable involvement. However, those with considerable involvement di d report higher levels of confusion and perceived their recovery to be less towards the end of rehabilitation. This suggests that it may be important to assess affective reactions and perceived recovery during the re-entry ph ase.