Participation in Special Olympics helps young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to reduce the risk of being diagnosed with depression, a recent Canadian study has found.
The study, published in December in a medical journal titled the Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, found through data collected over 20 years that participants were 0.51 times as likely to develop depression as non-participants, which represents a 49 per cent reduction in risk among Special Olympics participants.
The combination of physical activities and the social connectedness of “being part of a team” helps young adults to lower the risk of being diagnosed with depression, said Meghann Lloyd, an associated professor at the Ontario Tech University Faculty of Health Sciences and the lead author of the study.
Lloyd said this is an opportunity to get more people — including children, young adults and older people — to participate in Special Olympics if this could help have fewer people diagnosed with mental health conditions.
Special Olympics is an international organization that provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, according to its website.
“This is an organization that is well-established within our community, that now has significant evidence of a health-promoting effect, so part of participating in an activity such as Special Olympics could potentially reduce our health-care spending if people are less likely to use a health-care system,” said Lloyd.
The study however, stated that researchers still need to look further into how much of this risk reduction is related to a physiological response to physical activity and exercise, and how much is related to “the social connectedness of being part of a group participating in Special Olympics.”
Lloyd said this study emphasizes the mental health benefits of physical activity, which “we all know and believe.”
“If you have ever been part of this Special Olympics movement, if you’ve been to a game, if you’ve been a coach, you have a family member who participates in Special Olympics, you in your heart know that this makes a difference,” said Lloyd. “And now we have solid evidence for health-promoting effects.”
Sharon Bollenbach, CEO of Special Olympics Canada, told Global News that she thinks the research highlights the impact of the organization’s work.
“It’s another piece in our toolkit to talk to stakeholders, to talk to people who don’t know the movement well, about the good work that we’re doing to change lives for athletes with intellectual disability,” said Bollenbach.
The Special Olympics movement was founded in the U.S. with the very first event held in 1968 on Soldier Field in Chicago, however, the competition was in fact inspired by discoveries made by Canadian sport scientist Frank Hayden, according to Special Olympics Canada‘s website.
In the early 1960s, Hadyen studied the effect of regular exercise on the fitness levels of children with an intellectual disability through a group of students at Toronto’s Beverley School.
Bollenbach said the Special Olympics program provides a community to athletes who are often isolated from society and withdrawn from community interactions due to their disabilities.
“The one brilliant thing that Special Olympics can bring to their lives is that they are out in communities,” Bollenbach said, adding that athletes are showing up at sports venues, meeting individuals with similar interests as them and making new friends.
“They are learning new skills, gaining that confidence and self-esteem, that’s the magic that Special Olympics bring to their lives,” Bollenbach said.
— with files from Global News’ Katherine Ward