Netball Shoots for Physical and Mental Wellbeing in Samoa: A Natural Experiment.

Justin Richards,Fetuao Tamala,Suzie Schuster,Emma Sherry,Nico Schulenkorf,Lewis Keane

doi:10.3390/ijerph19052663

Abstract

Sport-for-development programs claim to address key determinants of recreational physical activity participation and subsequent development outcomes in low-income settings. We conducted a natural experiment with pre–post measures taken from women in the 12 villages in Samoa, some of which voluntarily participated in the sport-for-development intervention. The intervention comprised a six-week netball league delivered by local volunteers who attended coaching workshops, received ongoing support from the national governing body and were provided with infrastructure and equipment to conduct local training sessions. Changes in netball participation, recreational physical activity, body composition, mental wellbeing and socio-ecological determinants of physical activity were compared between intervention and comparison villages using a univariate ANOVA. The intervention reached women who participated in little recreational physical activity and had poor physical and mental wellbeing. Program uptake was higher in villages with the strongest social support for netball participation. Local social support and capacity to independently organize netball activities increased. There were concurrent improvements in netball participation, physical activity levels, mental wellbeing and body weight in the intervention villages. Our findings support scaling-up of the intervention in similar settings but preceding this with formative evaluation to identify low active communities that are “primed” to participate in the proposed activity.

Highlights

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralPhysical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality and contributes to numerous cardiovascular and metabolic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) [1]
The majority of the samples were participating in netball less than once per week, completed very little other recreational physical activity, were overweight and had poor mental wellbeing
Women in the intervention group initially appeared to be participating in less netball and other recreational physical activity but had healthier body composition and mental wellbeing at the outset

Summary

Introduction

Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality and contributes to numerous cardiovascular and metabolic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) [1]. This is the case in Samoa, where the majority of the population do not meet the physical activity recommendations (i.e., 51.7%) and the prevalence’s of diabetes (i.e., 22.1%). There is established evidence that participating in quality physical activity can promote mental wellbeing [5]. This may be critical in the prevention of premature deaths as a result of NCDs [6].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion