Healthy Outlook Blog

Using Soccer to Promote Better Health

By Britta Barrett | Posted July 13 2010

Fitness, Health Tips, Mental Health, Sports

The World Cup may have just ended, but soccer continues to have an a profound impact across the world. Soccer players and fans from many different countries are using their love of the game to help people reinforce healthier lifestyles.

While soccer certainly helps improve fitness, it can also play a role improving the lives of its practitioners. In Brazil, two members of the national soccer team started community centers where at-risk youth can both study and play sports. The centers offer classes on English and computer literacy, as well as a game of soccer at the end of the school day. At these centers, playing soccer helps build young people’s self-esteem and motivate them to stay in school.

Similarly, in Kenya community members of Kibera, one of the largest slums in the world, are using soccer to educate young men on sexual health. Of the estimated 2.2 million people living with HIV in Kenya, one fifth live in Kibera. By organizing soccer matches, the Kibera Community Self-Help Programme hopes to encourage dialogue surrounding AIDS/HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, contraception and promiscuity.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, these centers focus on using existing behavior to guide healthy changes. The community centers in Brazil and Kenya demonstrate how we can use the universal language of soccer to educate others and motivate them to live healthier lives.

What other ways can we use popular sports to improve health?

ABOUT OUR BLOG

Our blog is a collection of thoughts and stories that serve as inspiration for what healthymagination is—a shared commitment to creating better health for more people. It’s written by the people behind healthymagination, as well as members of our advisory board and guest contributors from around the web.

You might like

Donna Karan’s Urban Zen FoundationCelebrated clothing designer Donna Karan has no problem connecting the worlds of creativity, culture and quality healthcare. She created a foundation, Urban Zen (UZ), as a vehicle for persuading healthcare centers to do just that, partly by introducing integrative medicine to “normal” patient care.
The Healthiest Places to Live in the U.S., Ranked | Healthland | TIME.comHow healthy is your county? Find out in the 2012 County Health Rankings compiled by University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 3,000 counties are ranked on health behaviors, including exercise and smoking rates, clinical care, availability of sidewalks and bike paths, and number of fast food restaurants. My home [...]
Can Silence Enhance Health?Dr. Prochnik reviewed many scientific studies and found that exposure to even low-level constant noise causes an elevated heart rate and blood pressure and a constant release of stress hormones such as cortisol.