The relationship between tennis participation and wellbeing: a survey of 2287 adults

Sports participation is associated with better wellbeing in adults. Despite its popularity globally, little is known about the relationship with tennis participation and wellbeing. We conducted a survey in the United Kingdom to understand the relationship between playing tennis and wellbeing in adults. A cross-sectional survey among healthy adults aged over 18 was conducted including tennis players and non-tennis players. Information was collected on sociodemographic, frequency of playing tennis, length played tennis for and a 10 item self-rated scale on State of Mind score (scored 0-100, higher scores=greater wellbeing). Data were analysed using mean and standard deviations, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and chi-square tests to compare groups as well as zero-inflated negative binomial models for the main analysis. Tennis players presented 13% higher scores than their peers (69 vs. 61; p<0.001). In the main analysis, playing tennis was associated with a higher state of mind (IRR: 1.10; 95%CI: 1.07-1.13). All the categories of years playing tennis had higher state of mind compared to non-players (0-5 years: 1.11; 1.07-1.16. 5-10 years: 1.08; 1.02-1.15. >10 years: 1.10; 1.06-1.13). Only the category of >1day/week of playing tennis was associated with higher state of mind compared to the group with <1 day/week (1.08; 1.04-1.12). Tennis players that trained regularly without competing, also presented higher state of mind scores compared to those playing tennis for fun (1.07; 1.01-1.13). In conclusion, our survey suggests that playing tennis is associated with higher wellbeing. Future large scale, prospective studies are required to understand the directionality of these findings.