Increased life satisfaction for people taking part in GP exercise referrals

People participating in GP exercise referrals have shown a significant increase in life satisfaction.

A study carried out across Greater Manchester – commissioned by GM Active – surveyed 1,700 people either on a waiting list for a GP referral or taking part in a programme.

Using a scale of 1 to 10 to report their life satisfaction, the study showed that the mean scores for patients taking part in referrals were 1.9 points better than for those on a waiting list.

By comparison, previous studies of changes in life satisfaction have found that moving from unemployment to finding work leads to an average 0.5 point increase.

Those on a GP referral programme also showed significantly improved scores for happiness, anxiety, loneliness and feeling worthwhile.

The survey was conducted by State of Life, which has pioneered the creation of “Wellby” scores for organisations such as Sport England, parkrun, Youth Sport Trust and Ofcom.

State of Life founder, Will Watt, said: “These results are what we call first findings and although there is similar work going on elsewhere, they’re significant.

“We’ve also carried out what’s known as regression analysis. This means we’ve taken into account factors such as age, health, disability, socioeconomics, and employment status to give us more confidence that any positive difference we see in the scores is actually due to participation and not anything else.”

A repeat data collection has now been completed and the findings will be broken down borough by borough and fed back to GM Active, whose strategy is focused on addressing physical inactivity and improving population health and wellbeing throughout Greater Manchester.

Andy King, GM Active Chair, said: “The early results are really encouraging as they help demonstrate the positive impact the referral schemes are having.”