Health Benefits of Different Sports : a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal and Intervention Studies Including 2.6 Million Adult Participants

© 2024. The Author(s)..

BACKGROUND: Several reviews have examined the health benefits of participation in specific sports, such as baseball, cricket, cross-country skiing, cycling, downhill skiing, football, golf, judo, rugby, running and swimming. However, new primary studies on the topic have recently been published, and the respective meta-analytic evidence needs to be updated.

OBJECTIVES: To systematically review, summarise and appraise evidence on physical health benefits of participation in different recreational sports.

METHODS: Searches for journal articles were conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, SpoLit, SPORTDiscus, Sports Medicine & Education Index and Web of Science. We included longitudinal and intervention studies investigating physical health outcomes associated with participation in a given sport among generally healthy adults without disability.

RESULTS: A total of 136 papers from 76 studies conducted among 2.6 million participants were included in the review. Our meta-analyses of available evidence found that: (1) cycling reduces the risk of coronary heart disease by 16% (pooled hazard ratio [HR] = 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.80, 0.89), all-cause mortality by 21% (HR = 0.79; 95% CI: 0.73, 0.84), cancer mortality by 10% (HR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.85, 0.96) and cardiovascular mortality by 20% (HR = 0.80; 95% CI: 0.74, 0.86); (2) football has favourable effects on body composition, blood lipids, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, cardiovascular function at rest, cardiorespiratory fitness and bone strength (p < 0.050); (3) handball has favourable effects on body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.050); (4) running reduces the risk of all-cause mortality by 23% (HR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.70, 0.85), cancer mortality by 20% (HR = 0.80; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.89) and cardiovascular mortality by 27% (HR = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.57, 0.94) and improves body composition, cardiovascular function at rest and cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.010); and (5) swimming reduces the risk of all-cause mortality by 24% (HR = 0.76; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.92) and improves body composition and blood lipids (p < 0.010).

CONCLUSIONS: A range of physical health benefits are associated with participation in recreational cycling, football, handball, running and swimming. More studies are needed to enable meta-analyses of health benefits of participation in other sports. PROSPERO registration number CRD42021234839.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:10

Enthalten in:

Sports medicine - open - 10(2024), 1 vom: 24. Apr., Seite 46

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Oja, Pekka [VerfasserIn]
Memon, Aamir Raoof [VerfasserIn]
Titze, Sylvia [VerfasserIn]
Jurakic, Danijel [VerfasserIn]
Chen, Si-Tong [VerfasserIn]
Shrestha, Nipun [VerfasserIn]
Em, Sowannry [VerfasserIn]
Matolic, Tena [VerfasserIn]
Vasankari, Tommi [VerfasserIn]
Heinonen, Ari [VerfasserIn]
Grgic, Jozo [VerfasserIn]
Koski, Pasi [VerfasserIn]
Kokko, Sami [VerfasserIn]
Kelly, Paul [VerfasserIn]
Foster, Charlie [VerfasserIn]
Podnar, Hrvoje [VerfasserIn]
Pedisic, Zeljko [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Body weight
Exercise
Longevity
Physical activity
Systematic Review
VO2max

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 27.04.2024

published: Electronic

Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE

doi:

10.1186/s40798-024-00692-x

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM371473020