Passing on the flame: Do mega sports events promote health behaviours?

IF 4.9 2区医学 Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Social Science & Medicine Pub Date : 2025-04-16 DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117921

Christian Krekel , Georgios Kavetsos , Nicolas R. Ziebarth

引用次数: 0

Abstract

To justify billion-dollar public expenditures on mega sports events, proponents often suggest lasting improvements in health behaviours among the general public. To estimate the returns to health behaviours from hosting the 2012 London Olympics, we collected panel data on more than 19,000 respondents across two European capitals, London and Paris, between 2011 and 2013. Using a difference-in-differences design with Paris as counterfactual, we find an increase in physical activity by six percentage points among the inactive, from a baseline of 34%. Activation, however, lasts only for about 100 days. Although we also find suggestive evidence for reduced alcohol and tobacco consumption during the event, a cost–benefit analysis suggests that staging mega sports events is not a cost-effective policy to promote lasting health behaviour change.

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传递圣火：大型体育赛事能促进健康行为吗？

为了证明在大型体育赛事上花费数十亿美元的公共支出是合理的，支持者们经常提出，公众的健康行为会得到持久的改善。为了估计举办2012年伦敦奥运会对健康行为的回报，我们在2011年至2013年期间收集了来自两个欧洲首都伦敦和巴黎的19,000多名受访者的小组数据。利用与巴黎的差异中之差设计作为反事实，我们发现不运动的人的身体活动从34%的基线增加了6个百分点。然而，激活只能持续大约100天。虽然我们也发现了在赛事期间减少酒精和烟草消费的证据，但成本效益分析表明，举办大型体育赛事并不是促进持久健康行为改变的成本效益政策。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social Science & Medicine PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH-

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

5.60%

发文量

762

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Social Science & Medicine provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership.