Yuhei Inoue, Ph.D., associate professor of sport management in the School of Kinesiology, has published a multi-year study with two colleagues examining the extent to which sporting event attendance is associated with self-rated health in Global Health Research and Policy.
“Association between sporting event attendance and self-rated health: an analysis of multiyear cross-sectional national data in Japan” draws from an economic model of health production and psychological research on the health benefits of psychosocial resources in which sporting event attendance was hypothesized to have a positive relationship with self-rated health.
The results of the study demonstrate that, controlling for the effects of personal and environmental characteristics, sporting event attendance positively correlates with self-rated health over a 12-year period. Specifically, when compared to individuals who did not attend any sporting event during the past year, those who attended a sporting event were 33% more likely to indicate a higher level of self-rated health. These findings provide evidence for a positive association between sport spectatorship and the perception of general health and contribute to the literature examining the relationship between sport spectatorship and health outcomes.
