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Life Guide U.S. essentials
English

Play racket sports such as tennis, badminton and table tennis regularly

  • Moderate value
  • Evidence A
  • Buys life
  • Disputed
  • Costs a little
  • Takes some hours
  • Some willpower

In plain words

People who regularly play tennis, badminton or table tennis have about half the chance of dying over the same period as people who don't, and about 56% lower cardiovascular death. Swimmers are about 28% lower. Running and soccer showed no difference in this data.

Cost

Court fees are a few dozen CNY each time. About 2 hours a week. The hard part is getting enough people and a court together and going every week.

What you get

A UK follow-up study of 80,300 (8.03万) people compared those who did a given sport with those who did not. Racket-sport players had about 47% lower risk of death (hazard ratio 0.53, 95% CI 0.40–0.69, the plausible range). Cardiovascular death was about 56% lower (0.44, 0.24–0.83). Racket sports here means tennis, badminton and table tennis. For swimmers the two figures were 0.72 and 0.59, for aerobics 0.73 and 0.64, and for cycling 0.85. Running and soccer showed no statistically significant difference

Notes

Disputed. These studies only followed people. People who play ball sports are healthier to begin with and have more social contact. That running showed no difference also suggests that what matters may be which kind of person picks which sport. Don't conclude from this item that running is useless; this section has another item based on total amount of exercise

Evidence grade
A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.
Sources
  1. Oja P, Kelly P, Pedisic Z, et al. (2017). Associations of specific types of sports and exercise with all-cause and cardiovascular-disease mortality: a cohort study of 80 306 British adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 51(10), 812-817. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096822

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 2, tip 14. This section is about health and medicines. It is general information, not a substitute for a doctor’s diagnosis or prescription. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer