Unless you catch COVID
Anglia Ruskin University
Published
in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, the research is the first large-scale
study to examine the benefits of attending any type of live sporting event.
The study, carried out by academics from
Anglia Ruskin University's School of Psychology and Sport Science, used data
from 7,209 adults, aged 16-85, living in England who participated in the Taking
Part Survey, which was commissioned by the British Government's Department for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
It found that attending live sporting
events results in higher scores of two major measurements of subjective
wellbeing -- life satisfaction and a sense of "life being worthwhile"
-- as well as lower levels of loneliness.
These results are significant as
previous studies have shown that higher life satisfaction scores are associated
with fewer life-limiting conditions and better physical health, successful
ageing, and lower mortality rates.
The new study also found that attending live sporting events leads to an increase in people's sense that "life is worthwhile," and the size of this increase is comparable to that of gaining employment.
Many initiatives currently promote the
benefits of physical participation in sport, but the researchers believe that
watching live sporting events can also offer an accessible and effective public
health tool for improving wellbeing and reducing loneliness.
Lead author Dr Helen Keyes, Head of the
School of Psychology and Sport Science at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said:
"Previous research has focused on specific sports or small population
samples, such as college students in the United States. Ours is the first study
to look at the benefits of attending any sporting event across an adult
population, and therefore our findings could be useful for shaping future
public health strategies, such as offering reduced ticket prices for certain
groups.
"The live events covered by the
survey ranged from free amateur events, such as watching village sports teams,
right through to Premier League football matches. Therefore, further research
needs to be carried out to see if these benefits are more pronounced for elite
level sport, or are more closely linked to supporting a specific team.
"However, we do know that watching live sport of all types provides many opportunities for social interaction and this helps to forge group identity and belonging, which in turn mitigates loneliness and boosts levels of wellbeing."
