Perceived Nuisance Caused by Air Pollution on Amateur Endurance Athletes/Exercisers: Development of a Psychometric Scale
Air pollution is a major health-related environmental challenge that affects many aspects of people’s daily lives. For amateur endurance athletes/exercisers, air pollution can cause, apart from the common health issues, reduced performance capacity during training and races. The most significant inc...
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MDPI AG
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Atmosphere |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/1/4 |
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| author | George Koskinas Ilias Mavroidis Yiannis Giossos |
| author_facet | George Koskinas Ilias Mavroidis Yiannis Giossos |
| author_sort | George Koskinas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Air pollution is a major health-related environmental challenge that affects many aspects of people’s daily lives. For amateur endurance athletes/exercisers, air pollution can cause, apart from the common health issues, reduced performance capacity during training and races. The most significant inconveniences that these amateur athletes/exercisers have to deal with, are related to breathing difficulty, increased heart rate, cough or respiratory problems, and eye or nose discomfort. The aim of this study is to create a psychometric scale that estimates the nuisance/discomfort that amateur endurance athletes/exercisers (triathlon, cycling, running, swimming) feel during their training, under conditions of increased air pollution, and to see how this is linked to demographic characteristics. The main overall purpose is the identification of possible correlation between air pollution and reduced athletic performance, as well as between air pollution and the wellbeing of amateur endurance athletes/exercisers, and to thus enable recommendations on training in a polluted environment. To this aim, a questionnaire was developed, initially through a pilot stage. The fully developed scale was provided to two hundred and ninety-two (292) amateur endurance athletes/exercisers for an exploratory factor analysis to be carried out. The exploratory factor analysis indicated three (3) factors accounting for 37.11% of the overall variance. The first factor “Physical discomfort” included nine (9) questions, the second factor “Lack of discomfort” five (5) questions, and the third factor “No general discomfort” six (6) questions. The degree of reliability was satisfactory, since Cronbach’s a coefficient was 0.841 for the first factor, 0.642 for the second, and 0.766 for the third factor. Subsequently, fluctuation analysis (ANOVA), multivariate fluctuation analysis (MANOVA), and Pearson’s <i>r</i> coefficient were used to indicate correlations between the independent variables and the three factors identified. Correlation between discomfort due to air pollution and the place of residence, as well as the presence or absence of allergies, was indicated. On the other hand, there were no significant statistical differences between gender, type of sport, the volume of training, the presence or not of respiratory problems, and smoking. Overall, the scale can be considered both valid and reliable. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5b653bd391884b9c93380b33b779e38c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj-art-5b653bd391884b9c93380b33b779e38c2025-01-24T13:21:39ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332024-12-01161410.3390/atmos16010004Perceived Nuisance Caused by Air Pollution on Amateur Endurance Athletes/Exercisers: Development of a Psychometric ScaleGeorge Koskinas0Ilias Mavroidis1Yiannis Giossos2School of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, 18 Aristotelous Str., 26335 Patras, GreeceSchool of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, 18 Aristotelous Str., 26335 Patras, GreeceSchool of Physical Education and Sports Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 41 Ethnikis Antistasis Str., Dafni, 17237 Athens, GreeceAir pollution is a major health-related environmental challenge that affects many aspects of people’s daily lives. For amateur endurance athletes/exercisers, air pollution can cause, apart from the common health issues, reduced performance capacity during training and races. The most significant inconveniences that these amateur athletes/exercisers have to deal with, are related to breathing difficulty, increased heart rate, cough or respiratory problems, and eye or nose discomfort. The aim of this study is to create a psychometric scale that estimates the nuisance/discomfort that amateur endurance athletes/exercisers (triathlon, cycling, running, swimming) feel during their training, under conditions of increased air pollution, and to see how this is linked to demographic characteristics. The main overall purpose is the identification of possible correlation between air pollution and reduced athletic performance, as well as between air pollution and the wellbeing of amateur endurance athletes/exercisers, and to thus enable recommendations on training in a polluted environment. To this aim, a questionnaire was developed, initially through a pilot stage. The fully developed scale was provided to two hundred and ninety-two (292) amateur endurance athletes/exercisers for an exploratory factor analysis to be carried out. The exploratory factor analysis indicated three (3) factors accounting for 37.11% of the overall variance. The first factor “Physical discomfort” included nine (9) questions, the second factor “Lack of discomfort” five (5) questions, and the third factor “No general discomfort” six (6) questions. The degree of reliability was satisfactory, since Cronbach’s a coefficient was 0.841 for the first factor, 0.642 for the second, and 0.766 for the third factor. Subsequently, fluctuation analysis (ANOVA), multivariate fluctuation analysis (MANOVA), and Pearson’s <i>r</i> coefficient were used to indicate correlations between the independent variables and the three factors identified. Correlation between discomfort due to air pollution and the place of residence, as well as the presence or absence of allergies, was indicated. On the other hand, there were no significant statistical differences between gender, type of sport, the volume of training, the presence or not of respiratory problems, and smoking. Overall, the scale can be considered both valid and reliable.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/1/4air pollutionnuisanceamateur endurance athletes/exerciserspsychometric scale |
| spellingShingle | George Koskinas Ilias Mavroidis Yiannis Giossos Perceived Nuisance Caused by Air Pollution on Amateur Endurance Athletes/Exercisers: Development of a Psychometric Scale Atmosphere air pollution nuisance amateur endurance athletes/exercisers psychometric scale |
| title | Perceived Nuisance Caused by Air Pollution on Amateur Endurance Athletes/Exercisers: Development of a Psychometric Scale |
| title_full | Perceived Nuisance Caused by Air Pollution on Amateur Endurance Athletes/Exercisers: Development of a Psychometric Scale |
| title_fullStr | Perceived Nuisance Caused by Air Pollution on Amateur Endurance Athletes/Exercisers: Development of a Psychometric Scale |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perceived Nuisance Caused by Air Pollution on Amateur Endurance Athletes/Exercisers: Development of a Psychometric Scale |
| title_short | Perceived Nuisance Caused by Air Pollution on Amateur Endurance Athletes/Exercisers: Development of a Psychometric Scale |
| title_sort | perceived nuisance caused by air pollution on amateur endurance athletes exercisers development of a psychometric scale |
| topic | air pollution nuisance amateur endurance athletes/exercisers psychometric scale |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/1/4 |
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