REDs alert: male athletes be wary and scientists take action

Correspondence to AC Hackney, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; ach@email.unc.edu The current state of affairs: sex discrepancy in REDs Sports medicine and sport science research has been dominated by studies examining male athletes—with one notable exception: the field...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of sports medicine 2023-09, Vol.57 (17), p.1066-1067
Main Authors: Hackney, AC, Melin, Anna K, Ackerman, Kathryn E, Torstveit, Monica Klungland, Burke, Louise M, Mountjoy, Margo L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Athletes
Editorial
Endocrine System
Energy
Etiology
Females
Health
Hormones
Idrottsvetenskap
Male
Males
Olympic games
Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport
Sexes
Sport Science
Sports medicine
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Summary:Correspondence to AC Hackney, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; ach@email.unc.edu The current state of affairs: sex discrepancy in REDs Sports medicine and sport science research has been dominated by studies examining male athletes—with one notable exception: the field of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports (REDs). [...]since the 2018 International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) consensus statement update on REDs, 178 studies pertaining to low energy availability (LEA) or REDs have been published, and of the nearly 24 000 participants involved in these studies, only ~20% were male.2 Since the sports medicine and science community has lagged on this issue, clinician knowledge and attention to male athletes suffering from problematic LEA (see box 1) and REDs, remain significant gaps in athlete health and well-being. On the contrary, there remain many unanswered questions concerning both sexes (eg, differences in the aetiology of LEA, societal perspective and coaching norms regarding the focus on physique traits within athletes). [...]there is an urgent need for more high-quality REDs research approaches (eg, prospective experimental and longitudinal cohort studies using gold-standard methodologies) in both female and male athletes.
ISSN:0306-3674
1473-0480
1473-0480
DOI:10.1136/bjsports-2023-106719