“What is the score?” A review of football-based public mental health interventions

Abstract

PurposeFootball exercise as an intervention for people with severe mental health problems has seen an increasing interest in the past years. To date, there is, however, no comprehensive review of the empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of these interventions. In this review, the authors have comprised the research findings from the peer-review literature as well as the theoretical approaches to football exercise as an adjunct treatment. This overview will be informative to everybody who is planning to develop a football intervention for this population as well as to the people who are preparing evaluation studies that measure the effectiveness of such interventions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe authors identified research papers in the peer-review literature that feature empirical findings on “football interventions” that aim at improving mental and/or physical well-being in participants with mental health problems. The authors are using the term “football intervention” here in the sense that the participants actively took part in football exercise, so the authors excluded studies in which the participants only watched football or used football as a metaphor to discuss mental health problems. In a table, the authors indicate the definition of the target group, targeted outcomes, measured outcomes, form and frequency of the intervention as well as the research method(s).FindingsThe authors identified 16 studies on 15 projects. The majority of studies were qualitative and had positive findings in which the participants reported increased well-being and connectedness, elevation of symptoms and improved physical well-being. The outcomes of the quantitative studies, however, were mixed with some results suggesting that not all intended goals were achieved. There seems to be a need for more quantitative studies to triangulate the qualitative findings. Interestingly, most interventions take place in the UK. Many studies fail to give detailed methodological information and often the aims of the interventions are vague or not stated at all.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the heterogeneity of the studies and relative scarcity of evaluation projects on football interventions for people with mental health problems, the authors could not conduct an in-depth systematic review. Furthermore, the information on methods was often unsatisfying and despite efforts to get more detailed input from the authors of cited papers, those gaps could not always be filled. Instead of coming up with a crystal-clear summary of whether and how football interventions work for everybody, topics were identified that need to be addressed in the planning of interventions, in evaluation studies, in implementation efforts and in the theoretical discourse.Practical implicationsThis paper constitutes a helpful overview for everybody who is interested in the theoretical background of football interventions for people with mental health problems, for people who are planning to develop respective in...

Evaluation of the Coping Through Football Project: Physical Activity and Psychosocial Outcomes

“…The findings of the present study suggest that a football project like Coping Through Football might be able to increase mental well-being and physical activity -these outcomes are well aligned with findings from evaluation studies looking into the effectiveness of other football projects [11]. As most of the previous studies mainly used qualitative methods, the present findings are helpful in 'triangulating' the empirical evidence found in these qualitative studies.…”

“…Of all these activities, football is not only effective in increasing important physical health aspects such as cardio-vascular and metabolic function [7], but has also social and emotional health benefits due to its nature as team sport and its potential to attract and connect people from a range of different socio-economical and/or cultural backgrounds [8 -10]. For systematic review of evaluation studies using quantitative and/ or qualitative methods to investigate the impact of football interventions for people with mental health problems see Friedrich and Mason (2017) [11]. Football's potential to increase physical well-being, fitness and inclusion is particularly important to people with severe mental health problems, given frequent poor physical health and social isolation [12].…”

“Football is pure enjoyment”: An exploration of the behaviour change processes which facilitate engagement in football for people with mental health problems

“…Furthermore, sport can reduce weight and psychiatric symptoms amongst people with mental health problems (Soundy, Roskell, Stubbs, Probst, Vancampfort, 2015). In the United Kingdom, the most popular sport is football (Sport England, 2017) and football is perceived beneficially amongst people with mental health problems (Friedrich & Mason, 2017a).…”

“…Qualitative work further explored the social element of football where it emerged that peer support aids recovery in mental health (Lamont, Harris, McDonald, Kerin & Dickens, 2017;Magee, Spaaig & Jeanes, 2015). Other benefits of football included improved confidence (Darongkamas et al 2011), increased well-being, connectedness and symptom relief (Friedrich & Mason, 2017a) and transformation of self-stigma (Magee et al, 2015).…”

Using football cultures as a vehicle to improve mental health in men: the case of the Redcar and cleveland boot room

“…Reflecting wider funding disparities between physical and mental health there are fewer mental health community-based interventions underpinned by football cultures that address the psychological well-being of individuals and communities (Curran et al 2016). In a systematic review, which focused on the therapeutic qualities of exercise for mental wellbeing (see Agnew 2008, Barraclough 2012, Mason and Holt 2012, Malcolm et al 2013, Friedrich and Mason (2017) identified 15 public mental health interventions that centralised programmes of structured physical activity -ranging from Premier League owned initiatives such as Imagine Your Goals, (see Henderson et al 2014) to more localised schemes such as the Coping Through Football project situated in a North East London neighbourhood (see Mason and Holt 2012). One issue identified by the authors is that when interventions are implemented, they often omit meaningful evaluation and lack a detailed audit trail for scholars to reflect on, and to facilitate replication in other local contexts.…”