title: What benefits does team sport hold for the workplace? A systematic review.
abstract: Physical inactivity is proven to be a risk factor for non-communicable diseases and all-cost mortality. Public health policy recommends community settings worldwide such as the workplace to promote physical activity. Despite the growing prevalence of workplace team sports, studies have not synthesised their benefits within the workplace. A systematic review was carried out to identify articles related to workplace team sports, including intervention, observational and qualitative studies. Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The findings suggest team sport holds benefits not only for individual health but also for group cohesion and performance and organisational benefits such as the increased work performance. However, it is unclear how sport is most associated with these benefits as most of the studies included poorly described samples and unclear sports activities. Our review highlights the need to explore and empirically understand the benefits of workplace team sport for individual, group and organisational health outcomes. Researches carried out in this field must provide details regarding their respective samples, the sports profile and utilise objective measures (e.g., sickness absence register data, accelerometer data).
authors.affiliation: a School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine , Loughborough University , Loughborough , UK.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brinkley
authors.affiliation: a School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine , Loughborough University , Loughborough , UK.
authors.forename: Hilary
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McDermott
authors.affiliation: a School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine , Loughborough University , Loughborough , UK.
authors.forename: Fehmidah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Munir
mesh_terms: D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D016272:Occupational Health; D013177:Sports; D017132:Workplace
keywords: Absence; exercise; physical activity; well-being; work performance; workplace sports