(68) The Total Score of Wellness: A Practical Approach for Monitoring Collegiate Soccer Players’ Wellness Utilizing Confidence Intervals

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine variations in individual athlete wellness over a competitive season in Division I female soccer players. Methods: 33 female collegiate soccer players (age=20.79±1.51 years) completed wellness surveys during the competitive season. Over the course of the season, subjects were provided with a wellness questionnaire developed by the strength and conditioning coach, and daily responses were recorded. The 6-question questionnaire was designed to determine each athlete’s typical variation in wellness and identify any extreme deviations from this baseline throughout the season. The questionnaire was comprised of measures including hours of sleep, sleep quality, training ratings of perceived exertion, soreness level, mental load outside of soccer, and the ability to cope with stress, with scores ranging from 1-10. A daily Total Score of Wellness (TSW) was calculated by averaging the Z-scores of each variable, excluding hours of sleep and the ability to cope with stress. Z-scores were then used to create a percentile ranking based on the individual athlete’s historical answers. Utilizing the standard 95% confidence interval (CI), upper and lower confidence intervals were determined to assess deviations from an athlete’s daily responses to the questions, flagging instances where a score fell outside the normal ranges. Additionally, an extreme CI was introduced by extending the confidence interval threshold using 0.5 × standard deviation to capture significant deviations. Results: The total number of questionnaires submitted throughout the season was 606. As a team, the number of occurrences throughout the season outside the 95% CI was 443, and outside the extreme CI was 264. Conclusions: Instances outside the 95% CI suggested deviations from expected wellness trends, prompting further investigation into specific wellness components for individual players. Values for specific questions where responses led to TSW fluctuating beyond the athlete’s normal range on that day were analyzed to determine which aspect of their wellness was affected. Extreme cases (outside the extended CI) had fewer instances outside the normal range but indicated critical deviations that could require immediate attention. This study introduces a snapshot metric, an individualized TSW, that combines multiple question answers to provide an overall holistic view of the athletes’ self-reported measures. This method can enhance the decision-making of coaches by prioritizing meaningful fluctuations in athlete status and allows for proactive intervention. By using individualized CI ranges, this approach enabled tailored athlete monitoring rather than reliance on team-wide averages. Practical Applications: Traditional wellness monitoring often examines separate variables in isolation, limiting the ability to holistically assess athlete status. This snapshot metric of the TSW allows for the identification of fluctuations in an athlete’s wellness on a day-to-day basis. In the context of enhancing performance and mitigating the risk of injury, coaches may consider modifying traditional methods of training and recovery for their athletes throughout the season based on their wellness scores. Future applications include integration with performance and injury data to further refine individualized athlete monitoring strategies. Acknowledgements: None