MedWire News: People who play golf live significantly longer than people of similar age and economic status in the general population, Swedish study results show.

Lead researcher Dr Bahman Farahmand, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues say that the cardiovascular benefits of regularly playing golf may account for the relatively low death rate among people who play the game.

"A round of golf means being outside for 4 or 5 hours, walking at a fast pace for 6 to 7 kilometres, something which is known to be good for the health," said co-researcher Professor Anders Ahlbom, also from the Karolinska Institute. "People play golf into old age, and there are also positive social and psychological aspects to the game that can be of help."

The team used data from the Swedish Golf Federation's membership registry to identify more than 300,000 members who registered before 2001 and who were born after 1920.

They then examined the national death register to compare death rates between golfers and the general population.

Analysis revealed that golfers were 40% less likely to die than people of the same age, gender and socioeconomic status in the general population.

Among golfers, players with the lowest handicap, indicating those that played the most, had the lowest risk of death, while those with the highest handicap had the greatest risk of death. However, the risk of death among players with the highest handicap was still lower that that of people of the same age from the general population.

"Maintaining a low handicap involves playing a lot, so this supports the idea that it is largely the game itself that is good for the health," said Professor Ahlbom.

The researchers write: "While we cannot conclude with certainty that all the 40% decreased mortality rates that we observe in the golf cohort are explained by the physical activity associated with playing golf, we conclude that most likely this is part of the explanation."

They add: "To put the observed mortality reduction in context, it may be noted that a 40% reduction of mortality rates corresponds to an increase in life expectancy of about 5 years."

The research is published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.