Research summary · Para sport
Wheelchair basketball pilot separates physiological and perceived pre-match stress
Thirty-four male regional-league wheelchair basketball players, averaging 35 years old, provided saliva samples 35–50 minutes before competition and completed anxiety and perceived-stress questionnaires. Researchers explored whether combinations of cortisol and questionnaire scores formed distinct stress profiles.
- Publication year
- 2026
- First published online
- Publication type
- Cross-sectional exploratory clustering study
- Journal
- Life
- Population / context
- Men's wheelchair basketball · Regional competition
What the publication reports
The exploratory analysis identified three groups with different combinations of cortisol, anxiety and perceived stress, while self-confidence did not differ. Functional classification, sporting experience, location and match result did not significantly predict membership of the high-physiological-stress group. The study illustrates that physiological and reported stress need not move together, rather than validating clinical athlete types.
Limits and interpretation
The sample was small, male-only and cross-sectional, with the smallest cluster containing five athletes. Bootstrap cluster stability was modest, and differences on the same variables used to form clusters are not independent validation. These profiles require external replication and cannot prescribe treatment or predict performance.
Read the source
Consult the original record for the full author list, methods, references, funding and competing-interest disclosures.
Multidimensional Pre-Competition Stress Profiles in Wheelchair Basketball: Associations with Cortisol and Psychological Indicators.
Original publication / indexed recordPMID: 42942289DOI: 10.3390/life16101704Full text at the sourceReader discussion
Discuss the evidence.
Ask a question, share a source or discuss the methods. Respectful disagreement is welcome. Every comment and reply is reviewed before publication.
Loading comments…