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By: The opinion Posted Mar 17, 2023, 21:20 pm EDT
Many people around the world enjoy attend live sporting events and recent research found that such action may have mental health benefits.
New scientific research has found that attending live sporting events improves levels of well-being and reduces feelings of loneliness. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, is the first large-scale study to examine the benefits of attending any type of live sporting event.
The study, conducted by academics from Anglia Ruskin University’s School of Psychology and Sport Sciences, used data from 7,209 adults ages 16-85 UK residents who participated in the Taking Part Survey, commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The study concluded that attendance at live sporting events leads to higher scores on two of the main measures of subjective well-being – life satisfaction and the feeling that “life is worth living”-, as well as lower levels of the feeling of loneliness.
These results are significant, as previous studies have shown that higher life satisfaction scores are associated with fewer life-limiting illnesses and better physical health, satisfactory aging and lower mortality rates.
“Previous research has focused on specific sports or on small population samples, such as college students in the United States. ours is the first study to analyze the benefits of attending any sporting event in an adult population and therefore our results could be useful in shaping future public health strategies, such as offering reduced-price tickets for certain groups,” said study lead author Dr. Helen Keyes, director of the School of Psychology. and Sport Sciences from Anglia Ruskin University.
Furthermore, the new study also reveals that attending live sporting events increases the feeling that “life is worth living”, and the The magnitude of this increase is comparable to that of getting a job.
Results regardless of the type of event
The author of the study explained that the results presented in the research were presented at any type of events, regardless of whether they were amateurs or professionals
“The live events covered by the survey ranged from from free amateur events, like watching the village sports teams, to Premier League football matchesand. Therefore, further research is needed to see if these benefits are more pronounced for elite sport, or if they are more closely related to supporting a specific team,” Keyes said.
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