Investigating mental health outcomes of national collegiate athletic association (NCAA) division I student-athletes at the University of Louisville, 2019-2023.

Mental health outcomes among collegiate student-athletes, has become a broader concern in the 21st century. This study examines prevalence and incidence of anxiety and depression amongst student-athletes at the University of Louisville from 2019-2023 across different Sports Groups. The prevalence of anxiety was found to be 20.22% and risk of anxiety was 15.65%. The prevalence of depression was found to be 13.11% and risk of depression was 18.75%. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between sports groups and anxiety/depression. There was a borderline association between sports groups and prevalence of anxiety after confounder adjustment (OR=1.86, 95% CI: 0.92, 3.8) and borderline association, comparing non-Performance to Performance sports, for risk of anxiety before confounder adjustment (OR=0.36, 95% CI: 0.13, 1.01). There was no association between sports groups with prevalence of depression or risk of depression. Future studies should increase the sample size and continue investigating differences amongst sports groups.