The SWEET-Football project, led by a team of researchers from the Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP) and the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), was received an honorable mention in the fifth edition of the Sports Science Awards, attributed by the Olympic Committee of Portugal and the Millennium BCP Foundation, in partnership with VISÃO magazine.
Coordinated by the ISPUP researcher, Romeu Mendes, and developed with the support of the Agrupamento de Centros de Saúde (ACES) do Porto Oriental da Administração Regional de Saúde do Norte, the SWEET-Football project was designed to test, in a first phase, the applicability and safety of a recreational football variant – walking football – among middle-aged and elderly men with type 2 diabetes.
“Implementing a walking football program for three months revealed high levels of adherence and fun among participants, and a low incidence of acute adverse events. The benefits in capillary blood glucose and blood pressure, observed at the end of each workout, are very promising indicators of possible long-term effects”, says Romeu Mendes.
The honorable mention attributed to SWEET-Football, within the scope of the Sports Science Awards 2020, in the “Sports Medicine” category, “reinforces the idea that there may be innovative solutions to old problems – physical inactivity is a very established risk factor in this population. This type of intervention appears to have the potential for large-scale replication, and may be sustainable in the non-pharmacological control of type 2 diabetes with the involvement of football clubs, municipalities and primary health care”, he says.
About the Sports Science Awards
The Sports Science Awards were created with the aim of encouraging scientific research on potential improvements in sports.
They are awarded by the Olympic Committee of Portugal and by the Millennium BCP Foundation, in partnership with VISÃO magazine.
Image: Project SWEET-Football
