COVID-19

Introduction: Whenever there is an outbreak of infectious diseases, psychosocial impact has been observed on individual and social levels globally. The psychological and social effects of the COVID-19 epidemic are potential and widespread, which affect people's mental health in the long term. The present study aimed to investigate the role of neuroticism in predicting psychological distress through perceived stress and loneliness in covid-19.Method: This research was carried out in the form of correlation and structural equations. The statistical population of the research was all the students of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, 300 of whom were selected through convenience sampling, and the neuroticism scale was from the short form of the Neo questionnaire, the Cohen et al.'s perceived stress questionnaire, the Kessler psychological distress questionnaire, and the loneliness scale. Social Emotional Assessment for Adults (SELSA-S) was administered to them. Then the obtained data were analyzed using Spss26 and Amos22 software.Results: The results showed that neuroticism is related to psychological distress through loneliness and perceived stress. Also, there is a positive and significant relationship between the components of loneliness, perceived stress, and neuroticism with stress, anxiety, and depression.Conclusion: Therefore, considering the increasing spread of psychological distress, it is necessary to reduce people's psychological distress by teaching self-care skills and stress management.

The current study's prime objective was to assess virtual reality games' impact on the mental skills of elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, 228 elite athletes were randomly selected and divided into four groups of 57 controls and experiments. All subjects in the control and experimental groups received virtual reality games for 15 minutes for ten sessions; then, each group was re-examined. The control group performed a follow-up test according to the posttest after two weeks using the Ottawa mental skills assessment questionnaire (OMSAT-3), and repeated measures analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test were used to test the hypothesis (P≤0.05). The results obtained using repeated measures analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test showed that virtual reality games influenced elite athletes' mental skills in COVID. From these findings, it can be said that virtual reality games can improve the mental skills of elite athletes during COVID-19

Background: The effects of wearing common masks during maximal exercise activities on individuals remain unclear.Aim: This study aimed to examine the effect of wearing surgical and N-95 masks on physiological, perceptual, and performance responses in healthy men performing a maximal shuttle run test.Materials and Methods: Fifteen healthy men (age 23.78 ± 2.0) participated in three sessions: without a mask, with a surgical mask, and with an N-95 mask, with a one-week interval between each session. After each test, physiological variables (heart rate, blood lactate concentration, and oxygen saturation), perceptual variables (comfort/discomfort and perceived exertion), and performance variables (maximum oxygen consumption and shuttle run test duration) were measured. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA to compare differences between the conditions.Results: Significant differences were observed between the conditions with and without a mask in terms of oxygen saturation (P= 0.043), blood lactate concentration (P= 0.026), and perceived exertion, maximum oxygen consumption, and shuttle run test duration (P= 0.001), with the no-mask condition demonstrating superior outcomes in all variables. The type of mask (surgical or N-95) did not significantly affect the measured variables. Wearing both masks led to an increased sensation of moisture, heat, shortness of breath, and fatigue.Conclusion: Wearing masks, especially during intense physical activities, may impair physiological and performance metrics, recommending mask-free outdoor settings when feasible.