Golf Prolongs Life?!
Mon, June 16, 2008 at 03:54AM Is this a suitable topic for Monday? Millions of men and women have pursued a small white ball over the weekend, and probably many of them have cursed the day they took up golf. Never mind – there’s a not-so-hidden benefit, if you live in Sweden. The famous Karolynska Institutet in Stockholm has published findings from a study they made of golfers in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.
Mortality data, obtained from the Swedish Mortality Register, was analyzed in a group of golfers identified by the Swedish Golf Federation’s membership roster. There were 300,818 golfers, with 1,053 deaths. The overall standard mortality rate was 0.60 in the collective of golfers – this means it was 40% less than the mortality rate for Swedish citizens. It’s equivalent to an increased life expectancy of 5 years!
Well, that’s Sweden, where golf is probably played a bit differently from the USA. The principal investigator, Professor Anders Ahlbom, describes a round of golf as “being outside for 4 or 5 hours, walking at a fast pace for 6 to 7 kilometers [3.7 to 4.3 miles], something that is known to be good for the health”. The golfers’ lower death rate is regardless of sex, age, and social group, but greater for blue-collar workers than white-collar professionals. A lower handicap is associated with an even lower death rate; keeping a lower handicap involves playing a lot, supporting the idea that it’s the game itself that is healthy.
I am skeptical that these findings will be reproduced in the USA. On most golf courses you aren’t even allowed to walk the course, but have to take a powered cart to avoid hold-ups by keeping up with other players. When the benefits of a 3-mile walk are taken out of the equation, other factors can come into play. For instance, some golfers take along a little nip or two, in their bag or even disguised in a club. And the nineteenth hole can provide plenty of calories, liquid and solid. As a non-golfer myself, I’d need to see a US study along the same lines as the Swedish one before I’d take up the game.
Just in – another reason not to play golf in the USA has been reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Golf cart injuries have risen 132% over the last15 years, from 5,750 in 1990 to 13,500 in 2006. Ages of the injured range from 2 months to 96 years. So, if you must play golf, eschew the cart!
Reader Comments (1)
it would lead also in some injuries.. especially on elbows.. just be careful..