Psychological impact of the Northern Ethiopia Civil war on Tigray Athletes

Abstract Background:The civil war in northern Ethiopia (November 4, 2020 – November 2, 2022) caused unimaginable suffering to the people of Tigray. Psychological suffering is among the many. It is well known that war affects all people living in the war zone and alters life dramatically, as its effects can be both physical injury of varying degrees of severity and the dangerous invisible wounds caused by psychological trauma and stress. As far as this issue is concerned, numerous research results have shown the psychological impact of war on the general population. However, no research has been carried out on the psychological impact of war on athletes. So the main objective of this study was to assess the psychological impact of the Northern Ethiopia civil war on Tigray Athletes. Methods: To achieve the purpose of this study, a total of 144 athletes from various clubs in the Tigray area were selected using the convenience sampling method. The anxiety symptom was assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the depression symptom was assessed using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies (CES-D) depression scale. The data gathered was analyzed using the SPSS statistical package (version 25 for Windows). Results: Of 144 participants, 1 (0.7%) showed minimal anxiety; 4 (2.8%) showed mild anxiety; 29 (20.1%) showed moderate anxiety; and 110 (76.4%) showed severe anxiety. And regarding depression, all of the participants were shown symptoms of depression as their score was higher than 16 points. Conclusions: As the result shows, almost all participants have a risk of anxiety and depression. It can thus be concluded that the two-year civil war in northern Ethiopia had a negative psychological impact on Tigray athletes.