Fight Medicine Research Institute

Version of recordOriginal research

Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its association with rapid weight loss among former elite combat sports athletes in Serbia

Nemanja Maksimovic, Ognjen Cvjeticanin, Carlo Rossi, Marko Manojlovic, Roberto Roklicer, Antonino Bianco, Attilio Carraro, Damir Sekulic, Aleksandra Milovancev, Tatjana Trivic, Patrik Drid. 2024. BMC Public Health.

Published in BMC Public Health, a peer-reviewed journal

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17763-z

Read the full textPDF filesPubMed 38254092

The medical question

What happens to a fighter’s metabolic health in the years after a career that included repeated rapid weight loss?

The Fight Medicine Research Institute uses this evidence to frame questions about health after competition and the long-term consequences of making weight. The study’s design, a single examination of former athletes compared with former athletes from other sports, determines which questions it can inform.

Summary

Metabolic syndrome was more common among former elite combat sports athletes who had practised rapid weight loss than among former athletes from other sports who had not (39.5% against 16.2%).

What the work reports

  • In July 2023, researchers in Novi Sad, Serbia, examined 150 former elite male athletes: 75 former combat sports athletes who had lost about 5% of body weight in the week before competition at least three times a year, and 75 former athletes from other sports who had not practised rapid weight loss. They measured waist circumference, blood pressure, blood lipids and fasting glucose, and gave an oral glucose tolerance test.
  • Metabolic syndrome was present in 39.5% of the rapid weight loss group and 16.2% of the comparison group (p = 0.002). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were higher in the rapid weight loss group (129.89 against 124.59 mmHg and 81.58 against 75.97 mmHg), while waist circumference, HDL cholesterol and fasting glucose did not differ. Two hours after the glucose drink, blood glucose was higher than at the first measurement only in the rapid weight loss group (112.86 against 100.26 mg/dL).
  • The authors conclude that former elite combat sports athletes who practised rapid weight loss during their careers may be at increased risk of metabolic changes after their careers end.

Limits to keep in mind

  • Retrospective case-control study. Participants were examined once, at least 10 years after their careers ended, so the study shows an association and cannot show that rapid weight loss caused the differences.
  • The comparison group came from other sports, so the two groups differed in sport as well as in rapid weight loss. The rapid weight loss group also had a higher body mass index (28.83 against 27.60).
  • Weight-loss history was collected by questionnaire after the athletes’ careers had ended.
  • The authors note that only men were studied, that there was no group of non-athletes, and that participants could not be randomized.

Source issues recorded

  • The article reports 75 athletes in each group, but the prevalence figures it gives for metabolic syndrome (39.5% and 16.2%) do not correspond to whole numbers of athletes out of 75. The article does not give the underlying counts.

Publication status and notices

Published in BMC Public Health, a peer-reviewed journal. Original research article in BMC Public Health.

Form of this work: Version of record. The version of record is the final article as issued by its publisher.

No correction or retraction notice was found in Crossref or Europe PMC when this record was checked.

Fight Medicine Research Institute contribution

Fight Medicine Research Institute selected and catalogued this study, prepared an original research summary, verified its bibliographic details, and maintains the associated citation record.

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Article details

Relationship
External research catalogued by the Fight Medicine Research Institute. The original authors, journal and DOI are unchanged.
Published online
22 January 2024
Repository date
22 January 2024 (Europe PMC first-publication date)
Date used here
22 January 2024 (Crossref publisher deposit, online publication date)
Rights
CC BY 4.0. Open access under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0), as recorded by Europe PMC and the licence link in the source record. The summary on this page is Fight Medicine Research Institute’s own wording. No text or figure from the article is reproduced here. Licence terms.
Source check
, against PubMed Central full text, Crossref and Europe PMC. Checked under the direction of Casey C. Sears, Founder. An LLM was utilized as a research tool with direct human oversight.
Appraisal
The check covered bibliographic details, links, licence and notices. It is not a formal critical appraisal of the full paper.
Clinical review
None. This record is a research summary, not clinical education.
Funding and conflicts
The article states that the work was supported by the Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation, Serbia, and by a doctoral scholarship from the “Villa Sarina” Physiotherapy Medical Center. The authors declare no competing interests.
Catalog
FH-055, added

Cite the original work

These files cite the work by its own authors, journal and DOI. Fight Medicine Research Institute appears only in a note, as curator of this catalog page.

Nemanja Maksimovic, Ognjen Cvjeticanin, Carlo Rossi, Marko Manojlovic, Roberto Roklicer, Antonino Bianco, et al.. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its association with rapid weight loss among former elite combat sports athletes in Serbia. BMC Public Health. 2024;24(1):245. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17763-z

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