La relación entre la participación en tenis y el bienestar: una encuesta con 2287 adultos

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.