Youth sports participation, demography and impact of local policies in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease

Abstract

A sedentary lifestyle, especially among young people, is a very important risk factor for the development of many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aging population, combined with the lack of sports practice among the youth has contributed to the emergence of these diseases as the main cause of death in modern societies. Therefore, the prescription of physical activity is becoming crucial in most strategies for treatment and prevention for CVD. By its close relationship with the communities, municipalities are in an excellent position to create favourable conditions for sport practice among population, especially among youth. This work is an empirical exercise that seeks to verify if there is any statistical relationship between the effort of Portuguese municipalities in the implementation of sports policies and the quality of life of their respective communities, particularly in terms of the prevalence of CVD and life expectancy. Our exploratory spatial analysis confirms the presence of strong spatial autocorrelation in almost all variables, confirming the strong spatial dependence between neighbouring municipalities. The estimation of the spatial error model confirms the existence of a slight impact of local sports policies on mortality rate from CVD.