Prevalence and reasons for Lithuanian track and field athletes expressed desire to retire from athletics
Objectives (oral/poster only) Retirement from competitive sports is a common occurrence, but the reasons for this decision are not always known. As part of the sports team, the physician may wonder what reasons led the athlete to make this decision. However, there is insufficient information in the scientific literature to address this question. Our study aims to determine the prevalence and reasons for Lithuanian athletes' expressed desire to retire from athletics. Materials and methods (oral/poster only) Of 102 Lithuanian track and field athletes who were provided with an original online questionnaire via "Messenger" app, 60 (response rate 58.82%) agreed to provide information about their willingness to retire from athletics and reasons behind it. IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 was used for statistical analysis. Pearson correlation was calculated to determine the correlation between two scale, point biserial correlation - between scale and nominal, Spearman correlation - between scale and ordinal variables. Chi2 test was used to determine the dependence between two nominal variables, Cramer's V test - to calculate the effect strength. Results (oral/poster only) The analysis found that 80% of respondents had considered quitting their careers. 41.67% considered it within six months. No significant differences in desire to retire were observed in different ages or sexes (p>0.05). 26.67%, 16.67% and 15% of respondents reported conflicts with coaches, health problems and psychological difficulties as reasons for this decision respectively. There was a statistically significant association between the reason given and the sex of the respondents (χ²=13.3, p=0.039, Cramer's V=0.471). Females most often identified disagreements with coaches as the main reason, males - physical health problems. Conclusions This study identified that desire to retire from competitive sports is a common problem, accounting for 80% of athletes. A different view for different sexes must be taken into account, as the reasons behind that desire may be different regarding gender.