Objective: To investigate the prevalence of the Yips in a well-defined group of golfers and to determine potential risk factors.

Background: The Yips is a neurologic movement disorder among golfers, present especially during putting. It is categorized among the group Focal Task-Specific Dystonia’s (FTSD). Little is known about the prevalence of the Yips and the factors that contribute to its emergence. To investigate the prevalence of the Yips in a well-defined group of golfers and to determine potential risk factors, we performed a web-based study among all golfers of a large Dutch golf club.

Method: All members (n=912) of a large golf club in the Netherlands were approached by mailings and via the homepage of the golf club. Participants anonymously filled in a web-based questionnaire. Questions were about gender, age, golf handicap, dominant hand, years of playing golf, onset and duration of Yips, occurrence of Yips (putting, chipping, irons and/or driving), side affected, smoking, alcohol use, a fanaticism score on sports, on golf and on competition-tension (VAS scores), possible obsessive-compulsion traits, current medication, medical history, family history of neurologic diseases, first-degree family members with the Yips, and a dystonia screening questionnaire

Results: Out of 912 eligible golfers, 234 (26%) completed the questionnaire. Among them, 234, 150 (64%) were men. Mean age was 61years (range 20-84 yr). Mean handicap was 18.7 (range 0-54). There were 52 (22%) golfers who reported to suffer from the Yips. A further 20 indicated to possibly be affected by the Yips. The Yips emerged after a mean of 17 years (range 0-44 yr) of playing golf. Further data are currently being analyzed and results will be presented at the meeting.

Conclusion: This part of the Dutch Yips Study attempted to provide insight into the prevalence of the Yips in an unbiased, large cohort of golf players and into factors that might be associated with its emergence. In a total of 912 eligible golfers of an average golf club, we retrieved a minimal prevalence of 5.7% with the Yips. This prevalence rate would be remarkably high for a movement disorder and particularly for a FTSD. With 400,000 golfers in the Netherlands, there could be almost 23,000 golfers affected by the Yips, and worldwide more than a million. This indicates that further studies on the pathophysiology an treatment of the Yips, and other sports-related focal dystonia’s, are warranted.

References: This poster has also been submitted for the 4th International Congress on Treatment of Dystonia in Hannover 8-11 may 2019

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-dutch-yips-study/