TY - JOUR
T1 - Can the London 2012 Olympics 'inspire a generation' to do more physical or sporting activities? An overview of systematic reviews
AU - Mahtani, Kamal
AU - Protheroe, Joanne
AU - Slight, Sarah
AU - Demarzo, Marcelo
AU - Blakeman, Thomas
AU - Barton, Christopher A
AU - Brijnath, Bianca
AU - Roberts, Nia
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Objective: To examine if there is an increased participation in physical or sporting activities following an Olympic or Paralympic games. Design: Overview of systematic reviews. Methods: We searched the Medline, Embase, Cochrane, DARE, SportDISCUS and Web of Knowledge databases. In addition, we searched for grey literature in Google, Google scholar and on the International Olympic Committee websites. We restricted our search to those reviews published in English. We used the AMSTAR tool to assess the methodological quality of those systematic reviews included. Primary and secondary outcome measures: The primary outcome was evidence for an increased participation in physical or sporting activities. Secondary outcomes included public perceptions of sport during and after an Olympic games, barriers to increased sports participation and any other nonsporting health benefits. Results: Our systematic search revealed 844 citations, of which only two matched our inclusion criteria. The quality of these two reviews was assessed by three independent reviewers as good using the AMSTAR tool for quality appraisal. Both reviews reported little evidence of an increased uptake of sporting activity following an Olympic Games event. Other effects on health, for example, changes in hospital admissions, suicide rates and drug use, were cited although there was insufficient evidence to see an overall effect. Conclusion: There is a paucity of evidence to support the notion that hosting an Olympic games leads to an increased participation in physical or sporting activities for host countries. We also found little evidence to suggest other health benefits. We conclude that the true success of these and future games should be evaluated by high-quality, evidence-based studies that have been commissioned before, during and following the completion of the event. Only then can the true success and legacy of the games be established
AB - Objective: To examine if there is an increased participation in physical or sporting activities following an Olympic or Paralympic games. Design: Overview of systematic reviews. Methods: We searched the Medline, Embase, Cochrane, DARE, SportDISCUS and Web of Knowledge databases. In addition, we searched for grey literature in Google, Google scholar and on the International Olympic Committee websites. We restricted our search to those reviews published in English. We used the AMSTAR tool to assess the methodological quality of those systematic reviews included. Primary and secondary outcome measures: The primary outcome was evidence for an increased participation in physical or sporting activities. Secondary outcomes included public perceptions of sport during and after an Olympic games, barriers to increased sports participation and any other nonsporting health benefits. Results: Our systematic search revealed 844 citations, of which only two matched our inclusion criteria. The quality of these two reviews was assessed by three independent reviewers as good using the AMSTAR tool for quality appraisal. Both reviews reported little evidence of an increased uptake of sporting activity following an Olympic Games event. Other effects on health, for example, changes in hospital admissions, suicide rates and drug use, were cited although there was insufficient evidence to see an overall effect. Conclusion: There is a paucity of evidence to support the notion that hosting an Olympic games leads to an increased participation in physical or sporting activities for host countries. We also found little evidence to suggest other health benefits. We conclude that the true success of these and future games should be evaluated by high-quality, evidence-based studies that have been commissioned before, during and following the completion of the event. Only then can the true success and legacy of the games be established
UR - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/1/e002058.full
U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002058
DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002058
M3 - Article
SN - 2044-6055
VL - 3
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - BMJ Open
JF - BMJ Open
IS - 1
ER -
