Team sport
Football, basketball and the like — recorded by session rather than by drill.
Exercise
Research records
Historical source snapshot. Not freshly verified, not a recommendation. Study findings, community accounts and app defaults are not interchangeable.
Publication suitability · 2026-10-15: Historical reference only; not a clinical verification. Clinical, regulatory, efficacy, safety and dose claims are not independently established by this review.
Team sport
Football, basketball and the like — recorded by session rather than by drill.
Evidence category: Clinical study. This describes the source category, not approval or certainty.
Regulatory statement in source: Not separately recorded; do not infer approval from the evidence category.
A cross-sectional analysis of self-reported data from over 1.2 million adults in the United States compared self-reported mental health burden across different exercise categories. Popular team sports were linked with the largest reduction in poor mental health days relative to not exercising, ahead of cycling and gym-based activity.
Benefits reported in the imported source
- Individuals who exercised reported fewer poor mental health days than matched non-exercisers, with popular team sports showing the largest association among exercise types studied.
- The team-sport association held after matching for age, income, education, and prior depression diagnosis.
- Durations around forty-five minutes and frequencies of three to five times weekly were linked with the greatest reductions in poor mental health days.
Risks and limits
- This was a cross-sectional, self-reported dataset, so the analysis cannot establish that team sport participation causes better mental health rather than reflecting it.
- People with more severe mental health burden may be less able to participate in team sports in the first place, a pattern the study design cannot rule out.
- The largest reported association does not mean more exercise was uniformly better; very high exercise volumes did not show additional benefit in the dataset.
Source bottom line: A large cross-sectional analysis of self-reported data found popular team sports linked with the largest reduction in poor mental health days among exercise types studied, though the design cannot establish cause and effect.
Uncertainty: Reference information only. Not medical advice.
Study protocols — reports, not instructions
1,237,194 adults aged 18 and older from the 2011, 2013, and 2015 CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, USA
- Reported regimen
- Self-reported exercise type, frequency, duration, and intensity compared against self-reported days of poor mental health in the past month, matched for demographic and health covariates
- Duration
- Cross-sectional survey data collected across three survey years, 2011 to 2015
- Reported outcome
- Individuals who exercised reported fewer poor mental health days than matched non-exercisers, with the largest association seen for popular team sports, followed by cycling and gym-based aerobic activity
- Source
- Association between physical exercise and mental health in 1·2 million individuals in the USA between 2011 and 2015: a cross-sectional study
Claim provenance
evidence.json#/catalog:exercise:team-sport/protocols/0
Community and practice descriptions
Accounts of a practice are not evidence of safety or effectiveness. Words such as “standard”, “safe” or “recommended” describe the source account, not verified consensus or this wiki’s advice. Commercial and self-published citations are retained for traceability, not vendor endorsement or independent clinical corroboration.
Unverified imported account — Recreational sports leagues for adults - County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
An imported authored paraphrase, not a quotation or a recommended protocol.
Review: unverified historical account. The imported wording is preserved for attribution; its full clinical, dosing, efficacy or consensus claims have not been independently established. Described practice context only; no clinical benefit or safety outcome is inferred.
Imported wording: A County Health Rankings description of adult recreational leagues lists soccer, softball, kickball and basketball at different playing levels.
Recreational sports leagues for adults - County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
Historical research outcome: verified-description · 2026-10-06
An attributed practice description was verified without importing the source's benefit claims, recommendations or assumptions about prevalence.
- https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/strategies-and-solutions/what-works-for-health/strategies/recreational-sports-leagues-for-adults: verified-description — Independently read the live source and checked this limited, attributed description: A County Health Rankings description of adult recreational leagues lists soccer, softball, kickball and basketball at different playing levels.
Pharmacokinetic context
No half-life recorded in this source snapshot. No value has been inferred.
Source references
Snapshot provenance
Source ID: catalog:exercise:team-sport. Commit: adc7684614f9439b41d91a3312b62e7982c7e20e. Review state: historical-not-reverified. Authored links are retained separately from the canonical evidence links in the public data. App templates/defaults and rejected drafts are archived, not deployed.
Related entries and components
None listed.