Health Risk Behaviors, Status, And Outcomes Between U.S. States With And Without Professional Sports Teams

The connection (or lack thereof) between a professional sports team and the health of a community is unknown. Although some may argue that professional sports teams encourage positive health behaviors, there are also some unhealthy behaviors associated with attending professional sports games and events. PURPOSE: To compare health risk behaviors, status, and outcomes in U.S. States with vs. without professional sports teams METHODS: Age-adjusted estimated prevalence of health measures based on Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2019 or 2020 data were obtained from the 2022 PLACES dataset. A total of 3 health risk behaviors (binge drinking, current smoking, no leisure-time physical activity), 3 health status (perceived general, mental, and physical health), and 5 health outcomes (high blood pressure and cholesterol, coronary heart disease (CHD), depression, diabetes, obesity) were examined. Independent samples t-test were used to compare health measures between states with vs. without professional sports teams. Significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: As of July 2022, there were a total of 140 professional sports teams in the U.S. located within 27 states with no teams in 23 U.S. states. No significant differences were observed in binge drinking (17.8 vs. 17.9%), smoking (19.9 vs. 20.2%), general health (16.0 vs. 16.0%), physical health (11.0 vs. 10.9%), high cholesterol (29.6 vs. 29.5%), CHD (6.3 vs. 6.4%), and diabetes (10.5 vs. 10.4%) between states with vs. without professional sports teams. Both depression and self-reported poor mental health prevalence was significantly higher in states with sports teams compared to those without (22.3 vs. 21.3% and 16.0 vs. 15.3%, p < 0.0001, respectively). Significantly lower prevalence of no leisure-time physical activity (25.4 vs. 26.1%), obesity (35.8 vs. 36.9%) and high blood pressure (32.1 vs. 33.7%) was observed in states with vs. without professional sports teams, respectively (all p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A broad examination of population-estimated health measures from states with and without professional sports teams revealed conflicting results. More detailed analyses are warranted to determine whether or not the presence of professional sports teams impact the health of the community.