China Center for Agricultural Policy (CCAP), School of Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, China.
National School of Development, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jan 17;17(2):597. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17020597.
It is well known that increasing participation in physical activities is not only positive for individual health promotion, but also beneficial for community-level public health by enhancing the individual's social well-being by facilitating social inclusion. Although the provision of community sports affects participation in physical activities, the magnitude and direction of this effect are still not clear. Under this circumstance, this paper examined the effects of community sports provision on social inclusion and public health using the micro-level data from a household survey conducted in eight provinces of rural China. For the purpose of this paper, the degree of social inclusion was proxied by participation in community sports, while public health was measured by the probability of getting ill for members of each household. The empirical results show that community sports provision was partially effective in promoting inclusion and health in rural areas. Specifically, constructing public sports facilities significantly increases participation in community sports and decreases the risk of getting ill. In contrast, organizing public sports activities increases the opportunity for households to play sports. Nonetheless, it does not promote public health. Equally important is that economic growth (reflected in the increase in income level) may enhance public health through advancing medical technologies and improving sanitary conditions instead of encouraging participation in community sports.
众所周知，增加身体活动的参与度不仅对个人健康促进有益，还通过促进社会包容来增强个人的社会幸福感，从而对社区层面的公共健康有益。尽管社区体育的提供对身体活动的参与有影响，但这种影响的大小和方向仍不清楚。在这种情况下，本文利用中国农村八个省份进行的家庭调查的微观数据，研究了社区体育供给对社会包容和公共健康的影响。为了本文的目的，社会包容程度由参与社区体育来代表，而公共健康则由每个家庭成员生病的概率来衡量。实证结果表明，社区体育供给在促进农村地区的包容和健康方面具有一定的效果。具体而言，建设公共体育设施显著增加了社区体育的参与度，降低了生病的风险。相比之下，组织公共体育活动增加了家庭进行体育活动的机会，但并没有促进公共健康。同样重要的是，经济增长（体现在收入水平的提高上）可能通过推进医疗技术和改善卫生条件来促进公共健康，而不是鼓励参与社区体育。
