Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the epidemiology of soccer muscle injuries in Italian Serie A professional football players.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence that COVID-19 lockdown had on the epidemiology of soccer musculoskeletal injuries during 2019/2020 Italian First Football League Serie A in professional football players. METHODS: In this retrospective study we analyzed records from media-based platform (Trasfermarkt, https://www.transfermarkt.com), describing the epidemiology of muscle injuries before and after the first COVID-19 lockdown phases in Italian professional football players. We also classified the severity of the injury as the number of missing days from participation. RESULTS: We assessed a lower prevalence of post-lockdown injuries, albeit showing a similar injury rate at 1000 game-hours (prelockdown: 16.9 [13.0-20.7], post-lockdown: 15.5 [9.9-21.1]; RR=0.92 [0.46-1.8]). All risk ratios for injury rate were not significantly different (P>0.05) between pre- and post-lockdown. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of muscle injuries has not significantly changed after the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italian professional soccer players. Recognizing injury rates might be crucial for physician to evaluate adequate preventive measures.

Psychological Distress and Work Environment Perception by Physical Therapists from Southern Italy during COVID-19 Pandemic: The C.A.L.A.B.R.I.A Study.

The psychosocial impact of the work environment during the COVID-19 pandemic on health professionals is a growing issue. The present study examined specific psychosocial work environment indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic, through a multiple regression model of a self-administered cross-sectional online survey in a cohort of physical therapists from a region of Southern Italy from March 2020 to May 2021. The questionnaire contained items on work and healthcare issues related to COVID-19. Eighty physical therapists (29 male and 51 female), mean age 32.5 ± 10.1 years, were involved in this survey. The multiple regression analysis showed that "management activity" was significantly correlated to "therapist frustration" during the COVID-19 pandemic (ΔR2 = 0.16; p < 0.03). Findings of this study underline the importance of a healthy psychosocial work environment to enhance job satisfaction of all health professionals and to avoid role conflict and burnout syndrome during the COVID-19 pandemic.