DRINK AND BE ACTIVE - THE ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN DRINKING AND PARTICIPATION IN SPORTS

This study examines the associations between sports involvement and al cohol use. Research on drinking and recreational sports has shown inco nsistent findings concerning the associations between sports participa tion and drinking. While some have found a negative relation between s ports and drinking, others found the associations to be non-significan t, Unfortunately, many studies have overlooked the effects of age, sex , and marital status on sports participation and alcohol use. Using da ta from the Ontario Health Survey, two hypotheses are tested: 1) drink ers are physically more active than non-drinkers, because the former a re more likely to be young, male, or single; and 2) among drinkers, fr equency of sports participation decreases with increasing frequency of drinking. Multivariate analyses results (MCA) show some support for t he first hypothesis, but not for the second. Although drinking is an i mportant predictor for sports involvement, there seems to be a curvili near association between sports participation and frequency of drinkin g.