Attending live sports may be good for your well-being: research
Posted March 27, 2023 7:55 PM ET
When you’re feeling alone or dissatisfied, a new study suggests that watching live sport can help you improve your well-being and reduce feelings of loneliness.
Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University’s School of Psychology and Sport Science analyzed data from 7,209 adults aged 16 to 85 in England to examine the benefits of attending any type of live sporting event.
Attending live sporting events increases a person’s life satisfaction and reduces loneliness, according to the study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.
Researchers found that respondents who had attended a live sporting event in the past year were more likely to say they were satisfied and had a greater sense of “that life is worth it”. Researchers observed the same effect in loneliness.
Previous studies have shown that higher life satisfaction scores are associated with fewer life-limiting conditions and better physical health, successful aging, and lower mortality rates.
“Previous research has focused on specific sports or small population samples, such as B. College students in the United States,” said Helen Keyes, who leads the research. “Our study is the first to examine the benefits of attending a sporting event for an adult population, and therefore our results could be useful in designing future public health strategies, e.g. B. offering reduced ticket prices for certain groups.”
The researchers compared the effects of attending live sporting events to employment and said the amount of performance improvement was comparable. They said that physical participation in sports improves well-being and also reduces loneliness.
The UK study is the first large-scale study to examine the benefits of attending these events in person, and researchers say more studies are needed to determine whether a given team’s level of sport and support makes a difference.
“However, we know that watching live sports of all types provides many opportunities for social interaction and this helps forge group identity and belonging, which in turn mitigates loneliness and increases well-being,” Keyes added.
Coverage for this story was paid for by the Meta-funded Afghan Journalists-in-Residence project.