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Community size and sport participation across 22 countries
Author(s) -
Balish S. M.,
Rainham D.,
Blanchard C.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of medicine and science in sports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.575
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1600-0838
pISSN - 0905-7188
DOI - 10.1111/sms.12375
Subject(s) - confidence interval , odds ratio , team sport , odds , demography , medicine , community organization , gerontology , psychology , logistic regression , physical therapy , athletes , sociology , political science , public relations
The objective of this study was to examine, across 22 countries, the association between community size and individual sport, team sport, and exercise participation. Hierarchal non‐linear B ernoulli modeling is used to examine the association between community size (100 000–10 000; <10 000) and (a) individual sport, (b) team sport, and (c) exercise participation. After controlling for country‐level clustering and demographic variables, those residing a community with between 100 000 and 10 000 residents are more likely to participate in individual sport [odds ratio ( OR ) = 1.14; 95% confidence interval ( CI ) = 1.05–1.23] while residing in a community with less than 10 000 residents is unrelated ( OR = 1.06; 95% CI = 0.96–1.19). Those residing in communities with between 100 000 and 10 000 residents were more likely to participate in team sport ( OR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.01–1.45) while residing in a community with less than 10 000 residents is unrelated ( OR = 1.02; 95% CI = 0.88–1.18). Residing in a community with between 100 000 and 10 000 residents is unrelated to exercise participation ( OR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.89–1.7), while residing in a community with less than 10 000 residents is negatively related to exercise participation ( OR = 0.86; 95% CI = 0.79–0.93). These findings provide novel evidence that communities between 100 000 and 10 000 residents are related to increased sport participation, particularly team sport participation.