By Mark RALSTON / AFP
Attending a live sports event can be thrilling for spectators. Now, British research reveals that this activity could help improve well-being and reduce feelings of loneliness.
Attending a live sports event can be thrilling for spectators. Now, British research reveals that this activity could help improve well-being and reduce feelings of loneliness.
A new study conducted by the School of Psychology and Sport Science at Anglia Ruskin University and published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health,reports that attending live sports events could increase levels of two important factors in measuring subjective well-being: life satisfaction and the sense that "life is worth living." The boost in this latter feeling could even be comparable to that of landing a new job.
"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," explains lead author Dr Helen Keyes, head of the School of Psychology and Sport Science at Anglia Ruskin University, quoted in a press release.
To conduct the research, the study collected data from 7,209 adults living in England between the ages of 16 and 85, between April 2019 and March 2020. Participants were asked to describe their health status. As for loneliness, respondents were asked to indicate whether they felt lonely "often or always," "some of the time," "occasionally," "hardly ever" or "never." They were also asked whether or not they had attended live sports events in the past 12 months. The results show that those who frequently attended the events felt greater life satisfaction and well-being.
The sporting events ranged from amateur matches that the public can attend free of charge to big soccer games with professional players. "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," explains Helen Keyes. "Our findings could be useful for shaping future public health strategies, such as offering reduced ticket prices for certain groups," she concludes.
