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Positive effects from sports are achieved primarily through physical activity, but secondary effects bring health benefits such as psychosocial and personal development and less alcohol consumption. Negative effects, such as the risk of failure, injuries, eating disorders, and burnout, are also apparent. Because physical activity is increasingly conducted in an organized manner, sport’s role in society has become increasingly important over the years, not only for the individual but also for public health. In this paper, we intend to describe sport’s physiological and psychosocial health benefits, stemming both from physical activity and from sport participation per se. This narrative review summarizes research and presents health-related data from Swedish authorities. It is discussed that our daily lives are becoming less physically active, while organized exercise and training increases. Average energy intake is increasing, creating an energy surplus, and thus, we are seeing an increasing number of people who are overweight, which is a strong contributor to health problems. Physical activity and exercise have significant positive effects in preventing or alleviating mental illness, including depressive symptoms and anxiety- or stress-related disease. In conclusion, sports can be evolving, if personal capacities, social situation, and biological and psychological maturation are taken into account. Evidence suggests a dose–response relationship such that being active, even to a modest level, is superior to being inactive or sedentary. Recommendations for healthy sports are summarized.

Sport is a double-edged sword regarding effects on health. Positive effects are achieved primarily through physical activity, which is the main part of most sports. Many secondary effects of sport also bring health benefits, such as psychosocial development of both young [1] and old [2], personal development [3], later onset, and less consumption of alcohol [4,5]. Finally, those who play sports have a higher level of physical activity later in life [6], and through sport, knowledge of nutrition, exercise, and health can be developed [7]. Negative effects include the risk of failure leading to poor mental health [8,9], risk of injury [10,11], eating disorders [12], burnout [13], and exercise-induced gastrointestinal tract discomfort [14]. In sport, there are unfortunately also reports of physical and psychological abuse [15]. Negative aspects are more common in elite-level sports, where there is a fine balance between maximum performance and negative health. A somewhat unexpected effect of sport participation is that people submitting to planned training in some cases perform less physical activity compared to those who are exercising without a set schedule. One explanation can be a reduced spontaneous physical activity in the latter group [16]. Because physical activity is increasingly executed in an organized manner [17,18,19], sport’s role in society has become increasingly important over the years, not only for the individual but also for public health.

 of physical activity increases, either by increasing the intensity or duration ...

Table of The sports effects

Table of contents

Volume 1