Article Text
Abstract
Objectives This article describes (1) the systematic development of the intervention and (2) the assessment of its feasibility (in terms of relevancy, suitability, satisfaction and added value).
Methods The intervention was developed based on the first four steps of the Intervention Mapping and Knowledge Transfer Scheme processes. Subsequently, a qualitative research based on a one-group post-test cross-sectional design was conducted. Eight retired professional footballers underwent the developed intervention and its feasibility (operationalised in relevancy, suitability, satisfaction and added value) was assessed by means of a questionnaire and interview.
Results An After Career Consultation (ACC) was developed with a focus on five main domains: (1) detraining from professional football; (2) remission of osteoarthritis; (3) promotion of healthy lifestyle; (4) preventing mental and cognitive health problems; and (5) employment and education. The ACC relies on three components: (1) raising self-awareness about potential physical, mental and social health problems after a career in professional football; (2) medical examination (60 min) with thorough medical history and general physical examination; and (3) follow-up during 3 months (if necessary) about optimal skills and strategies to empower physical, mental and social health and quality of life. The relevancy, suitability, satisfaction and added value of the ACC were positively evaluated by the retired professional footballers.
Conclusion The ACC was developed with a focus on five main health-related domains. The feasibility of the ACC was positively assessed by retired professional footballers, while the suggestion was made to repeat the ACC in the initial years after football retirement.
- football
- osteoarthritis
- mental
- well-being
- sports medicine
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Contributors VG and GK were responsible for the conceptualisation of the ACC. All authors were responsible for the final development of the ACC, as well as for the definition, preparation and execution of the study. VG was responsible for the analyses and the preparation of the manuscript. EG and GK were responsible for the critical review of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.