Evaluation of the Coping Through Football Project: Physical Activity and Psychosocial Outcomes

Football is increasingly used as an adjunct intervention for people with mental problems, intended to improve their mental, physical and social health.

The aim of this study is to evaluate psychosocial outcomes and physical activity in participants of “Coping Through Football” (CTF), a London-based football intervention for people who receive secondary mental health care.

In a one group pre-post study design, participants completed self-report measures on physical activity and mental well-being at baseline (i.e. when joining the intervention), and at 6 months and 12 months thereafter. Perceived quality of life was measured using the WHOQOL-BREF which assess domains such as physical health, psychological well-being, social relationships and environment. The Rosenberg Self-esteem scale was used to measure self-esteem in the participants. Self-reported physical activity (vigorous activity, moderate activity, walking and sitting) was assessed using the short form of the International Physical Activity questionnaire (IPAQ).

For the 6 months follow up, data was available for 72 participants; at 12 month follow up data was available for 32 participants. Levels of vigorous activity doubled between baseline (102.98 min/week) and the short term follow up (196.85 min/week) as well as between baseline (117.26 min/week) and the one year follow up (248.23 min/week). For moderate activity, we find similar results with an improvement from 78.13 min/week at baseline to 149 min/week at the short term follow up and an increase from 87.74 min/week at baseline to 209.61 min/week. Increases on psychosocial measures were more modest, reaching significance at only the 6 month time point. There were no statistically significant changes with regard to the time spent sitting or walking at either the 6 or the 12 month follow up.

While the impact on psychosocial measures was only moderate, the increase in physical activity in participants encourages the use of adjunct football interventions for people with mental health problems as a means to increase physical activity levels.