While an estimated 60 million people play golf at least twice a
year, golfers are primarily middle aged and older, affluent, male,
white, and living in North America, Europe and Australia, experts
note in the 2018 International Consensus Statement on Golf and
Health published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
"Golf can provide aerobic physical activity to persons of all ages,
and strength and balance benefits to older adults," said Dr. Andrew
Murray of the University of Edinburgh in the UK.
"Regular physical activity is one of the best things you can do for
your health, decreasing the risk of heart attacks, strokes, type 2
diabetes, as well as dementia, depression and anxiety," Murray, lead
author of the consensus statement, said by email.
"Golf is not unique in providing this, and anything involving
physical activity can be of great benefit," Murray added. "Golf
additionally is green exercise, gives time to relax, and in a world
where older adults are generally less active than youngsters, can be
played from 3 to 103."
To assess the physical and mental health benefits of golf and
propose ways to make the sport more accessible to a wider
population, Murray and more than two dozen other experts in public
health, health policy and industry reviewed data from 342 previously
published studies on the sport. The work was funded in part by the
World Golf Foundation.
Compared with other sports, the risk of injury in golf is moderate,
these experts conclude. But because golf is an outdoor activity,
golfers may have a higher risk of skin cancer than people who take
up indoor sports or activities that don't involve as much time
outside.
To get the most benefit from the sport, golfers should play for at
least 150 minutes a week and avoid riding in the golf cart, the
authors advise. Players should also do warm-up and strengthening
exercises to lower their risk of injury and use sunscreen and
protective clothing to limit their risk of skin cancer.
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Cost and perceptions of the sport as the domain of older white men
may put some people off the idea of playing golf, however. The sport
is also perceived as difficult to learn and unwelcoming to women and
people of color.
Leaders in golf should make a greater effort to make the sport more
inclusive and welcoming of people from all walks of life and ethnic
backgrounds, the experts advise.
"Golf is one of many sporting activities that may contribute to the
lowering of global physical inactivity, and it is a sport that is
particularly popular among middle-aged and older adults with the
potential of lifelong participation," said Peter Krustrup, a
professor of sport and health sciences at the University of Southern
Denmark in Odense who wasn't involved in the consensus statement.
For people who need to improve cardiovascular fitness, however, golf
may need to be supplemented with other exercise, Krustrup said by
email.
"Golf is a low-impact sport and golfers never reach very high heart
rates when playing golf, making golf a non-optimal sport (for
improving) cardiorespiratory fitness and musculoskeletal fitness,"
Krustrup said. "Therefore, it makes good sense that the consensus
statement says that taking part in physical activities additional to
golf is likely to offer further health benefits."
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2IdzHC2 British Journal of Sports Medicine,
online September 23, 2018.
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