Exercise Addiction Stability and Health Effects. A 6-Month Follow-up Postcompetition Study in Amateur Endurance Cyclists.

OBJECTIVE To study the longitudinal stability of exercise addiction and its health effects in apparently healthy amateur endurance cyclists from pre- to 6-month post-competition. METHODS In total, 330 (30 women) adult cyclists were divided into 4 groups based on scores on the Exercise Addiction Inventory at both periods: nonrisk (n = 262, 79.1%), transient (n = 35, 10.6%), emerging (n = 14, 4.2%) and persistent (n = 20, 6.1%). RESULTS The prevalence of high-risk exercise addiction was reduced postcompetition (16.7% vs 10.3%, P = 0.017). Of the cyclists with a high precompetition risk of exercise addiction, 63.6% (35/55) had a transient addiction associated with favorable effects on mental quality of life (effect size [ES] = 0.52, 95% confidence interval: [0.20, 0.86]) and sleep quality (ES = -0.50 [-0.89, -0.12]) and avoided the worsening of depression symptom severity compared to the remaining groups (ES range = 0.51-0.65). The 5.1% (14/275) of cyclists with a precompetition low risk of exercise addiction presented emerging exercise addiction that was associated with a worsened mental quality of life compared to the remaining groups (ES ranged 0.59-0.91), sleep quality compared to the nonrisk (ES = -0.56 [-0.02, -1.10]) and transient (ES = -0.72 [-1.36, -0.08]) groups and anxiety symptom severity compared to the persistent group (ES = 0.51 [1.20, -0.19]). CONCLUSIONS Exercise addiction had a marked transitory component at 6-month postcompetition with associated health benefits in amateur endurance cyclists.