Clinical study
A controlled trial of the health benefits of regular walking on a golf course,

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9343(00)00455-1Get rights and content

Abstract

PURPOSE: To study the effects of regular walking during a golf game on various health and fitness indicators in middle-aged men.

METHODS: Study subjects were 55 healthy male golfers aged 48 to 64 years who had been sedentary during the 7 months before the study, and 55 age-matched, similarly sedentary controls. During the 20-week study, those in the intervention group were encouraged to play golf two to three times a week; the controls were not. Measurements of body composition, cardiorespiratory performance, motor and musculoskeletal fitness, blood pressure, and serum lipid, glucose, and insulin levels were obtained at baseline and after the 20-week study.

RESULTS: Walking during a golf game was a practical and safe form of physical activity with high adherence. It significantly increased aerobic performance and trunk muscle endurance, with a net difference (pretraining to posttraining change between the golfers and controls) of 36 seconds (95% confidence interval [CI]: 19 to 53 seconds, P < 0.001) for treadmill walking time and 13 seconds (95% CI: 2 to 24 seconds, P = 0.02) for static back extension. In addition, regular walking favorably affected body composition, including reductions in weight of 1.4 kg (95% CI: 0.6 to 2.1 kg, P < 0.001), in waist circumference of 2.2 cm (95% CI: 1.0 to 3.3 cm, P < 0.001), and in abdominal skin fold thickness of 2.2 cm (95% CI: 0.9 to 3.4 cm, P = 0.001). Golfers also had significantly greater increases in serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels and in the ratio of HDL cholesterol to total cholesterol.

CONCLUSIONS: Regular walking had many positive effects on the health and fitness of sedentary middle-aged men. Walking during a golf game is characterized by high adherence and low risk of injury and is therefore a good form of health-enhancing physical activity.

Section snippets

Subject selection

Study subjects were recruited through announcements in the local newspaper and golf clubs. Golfers were advised to ask coworkers to act as control subjects. To be included, subjects and controls were required to be previously healthy 45- to 65-year-old men with no diseases or disabilities that precluded exercise training. Regular use of medication, smoking, or physical exercise more than once a week during the 7-month period before the study (October to April) were also exclusion criteria. Of

Results

Subjects assigned to the golfing intervention and control subjects had generally similar characteristics at baseline (Table 1). Two golfers and 2 controls did not complete the study. One golfer developed ventricular tachycardia during exercise testing, and the other golfer had worsening of previous osteoarthritis of the knee during the intervention. One of the controls became seriously ill during the trial, and the other moved from the city.

Reported training compliance was very good. The

Discussion

We explored the effects of regular walking on a golf course on several indicators of health and fitness in middle-aged men and observed favorable effects on body composition, cardiorespiratory performance, trunk muscle endurance, and HDL cholesterol levels. Walking during a golf game was found to be a practical and safe form of physical activity for these previously sedentary men. The major strengths of the study were the very good compliance with the intervention and the low drop-out rate

Acknowledgements

We thank the study subjects, the personnel of the UKK Institute, and the Finnish Golf Association and its workgroup for the Health Enhancing Golf Program.

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      Golf seems to be an appropriate sport for both trained and untrained individuals with the goal of encouraging lifelong participation in sports in young people (Drane & Block, 2006; Lane & Jarett, 2005). The positive effects of golf have already been established in studies with middle-aged or older adults (Carless & Douglas, 2004; Farahmand, Broman, Faire, Vågerö, & Ahlbom, 2009; Lane & Jarett, 2005; Muff, 2008; Parkkari et al., 2000; Siegenthaler & O'Dell, 2011). Parkkari et al. (2000) showed that playing golf significantly increased aerobic performance and trunk muscle endurance in male golfers aged between 48 and 64 years.

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    Supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education, the Juho Vainio Foundation, and the Medical Research Fund of Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.

    Access the “Journal Club” discussion of this paper at http://www. elsevier.com/locate/ajmselect/

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