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A new study published in Frontiers in Public Health looked at how attending live sporting events can predict subjective wellbeing and reduces loneliness.

“The data was collected as part of a large government survey looking at all sorts of things measuring people’s health and wellbeing, as well as some other information about them, such as their age, income level, and some information about what activities they take part in,” study author Dr. Helen Keyes told us. “Our study honed in on the questions that participants were asked about their wellbeing (life satisfaction, sense that life is worthwhile, loneliness, happiness and anxiety) and whether attendance at a live sporting event over the past 12 months had any impact on these measures.”

Information from over 7,000 adults that took part in the Taking Part 2019–20 survey was used for the study. The survey is a UK household survey of participation in culture and sport. An analysis was done of the effect of attending live sporting events. Researchers looked at levels of joy, stress, life satisfaction, loneliness and also looked at gender, age, health and employment status.

“We found that participants who had attended a live sporting event in the last year reported feeling less lonely, having greater life satisfaction and having a greater sense that life is worthwhile,” Dr. Keyes told us. “The effects of attending a live sport event were comparable to being in employment (for sense that life is worthwhile) or ageing by 20 years (in terms of greater life satisfaction). Loneliness was also reduced in those that attended a live sporting event in the past year, above and beyond the effects that gender, age or income could explain.”

The most watched live sporting event in the world is the Tour de France with 3.5 billion viewers tuning in to watch. The World Cup of Soccer brings in 3.3 billion viewers and 2.6 billion on average watch the Cricket World Cup. Both the Olympic summer and winter games pull in 2 billion viewers each, and 1.1 billion tune into the Women's World Cup. Boxing pulls in 1 billion viewers while the UEFA Championships League draws in 380 million viewers.

Previous research has focused on specific sports or small population samples, such as college students in the United States. This is the first study to look at the benefits of attending any sporting event across an adult population. The 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,” Dr. Keyes told us. “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.”