Athletes train on a pre-determined training schedule. Scheduled behaviors are difficult to become “addictive” because urges and cravings cannot be scheduled. Still, many scholars think that elite or competitive athletes can become addicted to their sport or exercise. The aim of this systematic literature review was to analyze scholastic papers on exercise addiction in athletes with a special view on their focus and prevalence estimates. Four databases were scrutinized, including PsycINFO, PubMed/Medline, Crossref, and ScienceDirect, which resulted in 17 eligible articles based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The bulk of these studies compared athletes to non-athletes and employed a cross-sectional design. Their results suggest that the risk of exercise addiction is greater in athletes than non-athletes, along with a prevalence rate of up to >40%, which is ten times greater than that reported in a population-wide study. These findings are in discord with the definition and conceptualization of exercise addiction, which, according to previous calls, begs for the urgent clearer conceptualization of exercise addiction.

运动员按照预先确定的训练计划进行训练。预定的行为很难“上瘾”，因为冲动和渴望是无法预定的。尽管如此，许多学者认为精英或竞技运动员可能会对他们的运动或锻炼上瘾。这篇系统性文献综述的目的是分析关于运动员运动成瘾的学术论文，并特别关注他们的关注点和患病率估计。审查了四个数据库，包括 PsycINFO、PubMed/Medline、Crossref 和 ScienceDirect，根据纳入和排除标准产生了 17 篇符合条件的文章。这些研究中的大部分将运动员与非运动员进行了比较，并采用了横断面设计。他们的结果表明，运动员的运动成瘾风险高于非运动员，以及高达 >40% 的患病率，比一项全人群研究报告的患病率高十倍。这些发现与运动成瘾的定义和概念化不一致，根据之前的呼吁，运动成瘾迫切需要更清晰的概念化。