TY - JOUR
T1 - Associations Between Esports Participation and Health
T2 - A Scoping Review
AU - Monteiro Pereira, Ana
AU - Costa, Júlio A.
AU - Verhagen, Evert
AU - Figueiredo, Pedro
AU - Brito, João
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Esports are a contemporary phenomenon, with millions of people involved. Still, scientific literature on the topic is scarce. Anecdotal reports, mostly based on what is known from videogames practice, have associated esports with unhealthy lifestyles and health-related problems. The present scoping review aimed to provide an overview of findings from studies regarding the health and well-being in adult esports players, while identifying the most studied topics in the field and those still lacking scientific research. The search was conducted in MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, B-on, and ESCBO databases. Studies regarding health consequences of esports practice conducted with adult esports players were included. No exclusion criteria concerning age, sex, esports modality, or esports level were applied, but articles related to other forms of video gaming or gambling were excluded. The search was limited to peer-reviewed articles. Opinion and review articles were excluded. There were 1416 articles retrieved from which 33 met the inclusion criteria. Lifestyle habits, sleep, exercise and physical health (including musculoskeletal health), physiological demands, and mental health were the main topics of investigation. Several gaps in the literature were identified, namely studies on cardiovascular, respiratory, or metabolic health, or consuming-related risks. Also, the lack of homogeneous methodologies and definitions used in esports-related studies was identified. Esports practice has been associated with different health-related symptoms, but more studies using more robust methodologies and appropriate research design are needed. Topics such as cardiovascular health or the use of performance-enhancing drugs are lacking.
AB - Esports are a contemporary phenomenon, with millions of people involved. Still, scientific literature on the topic is scarce. Anecdotal reports, mostly based on what is known from videogames practice, have associated esports with unhealthy lifestyles and health-related problems. The present scoping review aimed to provide an overview of findings from studies regarding the health and well-being in adult esports players, while identifying the most studied topics in the field and those still lacking scientific research. The search was conducted in MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, B-on, and ESCBO databases. Studies regarding health consequences of esports practice conducted with adult esports players were included. No exclusion criteria concerning age, sex, esports modality, or esports level were applied, but articles related to other forms of video gaming or gambling were excluded. The search was limited to peer-reviewed articles. Opinion and review articles were excluded. There were 1416 articles retrieved from which 33 met the inclusion criteria. Lifestyle habits, sleep, exercise and physical health (including musculoskeletal health), physiological demands, and mental health were the main topics of investigation. Several gaps in the literature were identified, namely studies on cardiovascular, respiratory, or metabolic health, or consuming-related risks. Also, the lack of homogeneous methodologies and definitions used in esports-related studies was identified. Esports practice has been associated with different health-related symptoms, but more studies using more robust methodologies and appropriate research design are needed. Topics such as cardiovascular health or the use of performance-enhancing drugs are lacking.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129138770&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s40279-022-01684-1
DO - 10.1007/s40279-022-01684-1
M3 - Review article
C2 - 35486374
AN - SCOPUS:85129138770
SN - 0112-1642
VL - 52
SP - 2039
EP - 2060
JO - Sports Medicine
JF - Sports Medicine
IS - 9
ER -