You can find the EuroFIT January 2019 report now on the CORDIS website. Read it here.
CORDIS is the Community Research and Development Information Service. It is the European Commission’s primary public repository and portal to disseminate information on all EU-funded research projects and their results in the broadest sense.
https://eurofitfp7.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Screenshot-2017-04-18-10.37.42.jpg122154euro_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/eurofit_logo_small_340x156.pngeuro_admin2019-03-20 18:11:292019-03-20 18:11:31EuroFIT report on CORDIS
A programme which targeted the lifestyles of male football fans of 15 European football clubs has been more effective in improving physical activity than other physical activity intervention programmes, according to research published in PLOS Medicine today, February 5, 2019.
The clubs involved were Arsenal, Everton,
Newcastle, Manchester City, Stoke (England); ADO Den Haag, FC Groningen, PSV,
Vitesse (the Netherlands); Rosenborg, Strømsgodset,
Vålerenga (Norway); and
SLBenfica, FCPorto, SportingCP (Portugal).
EuroFIT is a groundbreaking programme which
harnesses the intense loyalty that many fans have for their club, using this to
attract them to a lifestyle change programme at club facilities.
The European Fans in Training (EuroFIT) programme, an EU-funded randomised control trial of 1113 men aged 30-65, carried out across 15 professional football clubs in England, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal, also led to important improvements in diet, weight, wellbeing, self-esteem, vitality and biomarkers of health risk.
EuroFIT is delivered by club’s community coaches
in football club stadia in 12 weekly, 90-minute sessions which are aimed at increasing
physical activity, reducing time spent sitting and improving diet in a way that
maintains change over the long term. A novel pocket-worn device (SitFIT)
developed for EuroFIT by the Glasgow company PAL Technologies allowed self-monitoring
of time spent sitting and daily steps, in real time while a game-based app
encouraged between-session social support.
In the randomised control trial men were
split into two groups. The first group undertook the 12-week, group-based
EuroFIT programme straightaway, and the second, comparison, group were asked to
wait until after the trial to take part. After a year, men who took part in
EuroFIT were doing on average 678 steps a day more than the comparison group. They had also improved their diet, eating
more fruit and vegetables, less fat and less sugar and had increased wellbeing
and vitality. However, attempts to reduce time spent sitting were not
successful. After a year men who did the
programme were not sitting less than those who had to wait to take part.
EuroFIT was built on the experience of the
Football Fans in Training (FFIT) programme. FFIT was developed and
evaluated by a team of researchers led by the University of Glasgow, is
delivered in Scotland by the Scottish Professional Football League Trust and has been adapted for delivery
in Canada and Australia. Using cutting-edge behavioural science EuroFIT
adds the novel technologies in a bid to prevent, rather than treat, chronic
illnesses associated with inactivity, such as type2 diabetes and cardiovascular
disease. In addition, EuroFIT included part of the “toolbox” of
strategies for enhancing sustained behaviour change.
Professor Sally Wyke, the programme’s
Principal Investigator and Interdisciplinary Professor of Health and Wellbeing
at the University of Glasgow, said: “The results of our randomised control
trial of EuroFIT support the findings of the earlier FFIT study. Gender-sensitised lifestyle
programmes delivered in professional football clubs show great promise in
Europe and could play an important public health role in engaging under-served
men.
“The
results also show that reducing the amount of time that people spend sitting is
a real challenge for public health. We recommend that future lifestyle studies
should attempt to ensure that participants understand the distinction between
being more physically active and spending less time sitting down being very
inactive.
With a
finalised version of the programme now successfully tested by additional pilot
clubs in England, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal, project partner, European
Healthy Stadia Network, will be responsible for the roll out of EuroFIT across
Europe using a not-for-profit licensing system. Matthew Philpott, Executive
Director of European Healthy Stadia Network, said: “We are hugely excited about
the roll-out of EuroFIT, as we now know this intervention is effective across
different European countries. We are working with our partners at UEFA to
promote this evidence-based lifestyle programme to European football, and are
already planning delivery of the programme in a number of new territories this
Spring, with the aim of having EuroFIT embedded across European football over
the next 5 years.”
Media
contact: Liz Buie, Head of Communications, Communications and Public Affairs
Office, University of Glasgow. Liz.buie@glasgow.ac.uk 0141 330 2702 / 07527 335373
EuroFIT has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 602170. The material presented and views expressed here are the responsibility of the author(s) only. The EU Commission takes no responsibility for any use made of the information set out.
https://eurofitfp7.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/eufofitlogononame.png350550euro_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/eurofit_logo_small_340x156.pngeuro_admin2019-02-06 10:44:262019-02-06 10:44:28Lifestyle change programmes run for fans by football clubs score health goals