AI Article Synopsis

  • - The study evaluates the Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) as a tool for identifying risk of low energy availability (LEA) and the female athlete triad among professional female football players.
  • - Out of sixty participants, 32% were identified as at risk, but the study found no significant differences in health markers between those at risk and not at risk, except for menstrual status which had acceptable accuracy.
  • - The research concludes that the LEAF-Q is not effective for detecting LEA and triad conditions in this population, suggesting adjustments to the scoring cut-offs could improve its performance.

Article Abstract

Background: The Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) is a screening tool developed to detect endurance athletes and dancers at risk for development of persistent low energy availability (LEA) and the female athlete triad (Triad). This study investigated the applicability of the LEAF-Q in a cohort of sixty professional female football players.

Methods: The participants were classified as at risk (≥ 8) or not at risk (< 8) for persistent LEA and the Triad according to their LEAF-Q score, before being compared. Receiver operating curves were then conducted to examine the ability of the overall LEAF-Q and subcategories to correctly determine the presence of clinically defined markers of the Triad. Additionally, Youden's index was calculated to determine the best fitting cut-off values.

Results: Thirty-two percent of participants were classified as at risk by the LEAF-Q. We found no statistically significant differences between the two groups for any markers associated with persistent LEA. Except for acceptable accuracy in determining menstrual status, all other LEAF-Q components exhibited poor accuracy and predictive values. Youden's index scores imply that increasing the overall and injury cut-off values to ≥ 10 and ≥ 5 respectively, would yield increased performance.

Conclusions: Our findings do not support the use of the LEAF-Q for the purpose of detecting LEA and Triad conditions among female football players.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10344853PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40798-023-00605-4DOI Listing

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