RESEARCH ARTICLE


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



Bettina Friedrich1, *, Oliver John Mason1, 2
1 Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College, London, WC1N 6BT, United Kingdom
2 School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, United Kingdom


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Creative Commons License
© 2017 Friedrich and Mason.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College, London, WC1N 6BT, United Kingdom; Tel: 02076791897; Fax: 02079161989; E-mails: b.friedrich@ucl.ac.uk, bettina.friedrich@gmail.com


Abstract

Background:

Football is increasingly used as an adjunct intervention for people with mental problems, intended to improve their mental, physical and social health.

Objective:

The aim of this study is to evaluate psychosocial outcomes and physical activity in participants of “Coping Through Football” (CTF), a London-based football intervention for people who receive secondary mental health care.

Methods:

In a one group pre-post study design, participants completed self-report measures on physical activity and mental well-being at baseline (i.e. when joining the intervention), and at 6 months and 12 months thereafter. Perceived quality of life was measured using the WHOQOL-BREF which assess domains such as physical health, psychological well-being, social relationships and environment. The Rosenberg Self-esteem scale was used to measure self-esteem in the participants. Self-reported physical activity (vigorous activity, moderate activity, walking and sitting) was assessed using the short form of the International Physical Activity questionnaire (IPAQ).

Results:

For the 6 months follow up, data was available for 72 participants; at 12 month follow up data was available for 32 participants. Levels of vigorous activity doubled between baseline (102.98 min/week) and the short term follow up (196.85 min/week) as well as between baseline (117.26 min/week) and the one year follow up (248.23 min/week). For moderate activity, we find similar results with an improvement from 78.13 min/week at baseline to 149 min/week at the short term follow up and an increase from 87.74 min/week at baseline to 209.61 min/week. Increases on psychosocial measures were more modest, reaching significance at only the 6 month time point. There were no statistically significant changes with regard to the time spent sitting or walking at either the 6 or the 12 month follow up.

Conclusion:

While the impact on psychosocial measures was only moderate, the increase in physical activity in participants encourages the use of adjunct football interventions for people with mental health problems as a means to increase physical activity levels.

Keywords: Soccer, Football, Evaluation, Social Inclusion, Mental health, Public health, Physical Activity.