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In the absence of sports, the simple fact of encouraging a team on the field, or attending a sports competition, would also have health benefits, as shown by a recent study carried out in England.
If playing sports is good for your health, so is watching (and cheering on) a team. At least that’s the conclusion of a study in England of more than 7,000 adults who attended sporting events as an audience. The mere fact of attending it would have direct effects on the level of well-being and would also alleviate the feeling of loneliness. The study, published March 18 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health is the first to study the benefits of this activity.
Live sport gives a sense of cohesion
The study, conducted by academics from Anglia Ruskin University’s School of Psychology and Sport Science, used data from 7,209 adults, aged 16 to 85, living in England, who took part in a survey commissioned by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Thus, in the analyzed data, participants who attended live sporting events had higher scores in two measures of subjective well-being:
- The satisfaction of living fully (the feeling that “life is worth it” indicate the researchers);
- Lower levels of loneliness than others.
This is whether the live events covered by the survey are free (and local) amateur events, or Premier League football matches.
Good in your body, good in your head!
Pleasure, but also health effects
The information may seem superficial, but it is not: we now know, thanks to other studies, that a high score of satisfaction with life is associated with better physical health, successful aging, and lower mortality rates. As such, the researchers believe that inviting people to attend sporting events could offer an effective public health tool to fight against loneliness… and actively complement the benefits of practicing a sport.
Further research needs to be conducted to see if these benefits are more pronounced for high performance sport or are more closely related to supporting a specific team. “However, we know that watching live sports of all types provides many opportunities for social interaction, which helps to build group identity and belonging, which alleviates loneliness and improves well-being” insists lead author Dr. Helen Keye.
So much so that the researcher proposes to integrate the offer of tickets at reduced prices for sports events in future public health strategies.