Introduction

In the period of the Covid-19 epidemic, based on the assumption that the gathering increases the number of infected people, universities, schools, sports halls were immediately closed, and sports activities and championships were suspended, which had a lot of psychological effects on the people of the society. Especially athletes, sports coaches and sports enthusiasts followed. There is a lot of research that analyzes the psychosocial problems affecting athletes, but there is little research that analyzes the level of anxiety and psychological problems and sports performance of coaches during the pandemic. Therefore, the current research is trying to analyze the role of mental health in relation to health anxiety and sports performance of female coaches in Qom province against the epidemic of covid-19 disease.

Materials and Methods: In terms of purpose and practical nature, and in terms of data collection, the current research is a descriptive-correlation research of a survey type, which was conducted in the field and using a questionnaire. The statistical population of the present study was formed by all the female sports coaches of Qom province in 1400, and 150 people were selected as a sample to conduct this research. In order to collect data, three questionnaires were used: Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), Trainer Performance Evaluation Questionnaire and Health Anxiety Questionnaire. The method of data collection was that the questionnaire was prepared online and given to the female sports coaches of Qom province. Among this community, 150 people answered the questions using available sampling method. In order to analyze the data, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equations) methods were used. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 26 statistical software and to fit the conceptual model of Smart PLS software and default alpha at a significance level of 0.05.

Results: In this research, 8 subjects were in the age range of 20 to 30 years, 43 people were in the age range of 31 to 40 years, 48 ​​people were in the age range of 41 to 50 years, and 51 people were over 50 years old. 4 of the subjects have diploma education, 4 people have postgraduate education, 76 people have bachelor's education and 66 people have master's education and above. 145 subjects exercise during the Corona period, while 5 subjects do not exercise during this period. 39 subjects exercise one session a week, 29 subjects 2 sessions a week, 33 subjects 3 sessions a week, and 44 subjects 4 or more sessions a week. The results of the correlation coefficient showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between all dimensions of mental health with all dimensions of health anxiety and a negative and significant relationship with sports performance dimensions. Also, there is a negative and significant relationship between the dimensions of health anxiety and the dimensions of sports performance (sig>0.001). In the model, the value of χ2 is significant with the value of 138.762 and the degree of freedom is 74. The rest of the indicators show that the data fit well with They have a model. Goodness index χ2/df with a value of 1.875 less than 3, GFI = 0.912, AGFI = 0.901, CFI = 0.951, NFI = 0.901 above 0.9 and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) equal to 0.077, which is less than 0.08, indicates that the research model has a perfect fit. Also, the confidence interval for health anxiety as a mediating variable between mental health and sports performance is at P<0.01, which is statistically significant. Therefore, health anxiety plays a mediating role in the relationship between mental health and sports performance.

Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that health anxiety reduces the mental health and sports performance of female coaches. The spread of the corona virus caused the country's sports community, including athletes and coaches, and all those who somehow deal with sports and physical activity, to stay away from sports fields for a while and stay in quarantine to maintain their health. On the one hand, this caused concern and anxiety caused by their health to keep them away from the fields. If the health anxiety exceeds its limit, their sports performance will also decrease, so coaches need to control the anxiety caused by their health in order to maintain mental health and optimal sports performance.

Research limitations:

Among the limitations of this research is the lack of control over the stressful conditions of the subjects outside of training, the limitedness of the examined sample and as a result the problem of generalizing it to other athletes in different disciplines, the existing research gap in relation to the study of the research variables, the research sample. Also, according to cultural and social factors, this case may be effective in generalizing the results at the national level and other groups. In the present study, variables such as social class, educational status, etc. It is one of the influential factors, which may have influenced the results.

Keywords: Health Anxiety, Mental Health, sports Performance, Female Coaches, Covid-19.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines

The ethical principles observed in the article, such as the informed consent of the participants, the confidentiality of information, the permission of the participants to cancel their participation in the research. Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Qom.

Funding

This study was extracted from the MSc thesis of the third author at Department of Sport Science of University of Qom.

Authors' contribution

Authors contributed equally in preparing this article.

Conflict of interest

The authors declared no conflict of interest.