12 May Song Contests Linked To Life Satisfaction and Health

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Filippos Filippidis MD, MSc, MPH, PhD
Lecturer in Public Health
School of Public Health
Imperial College London
London

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Previous research suggests that big sports and international events are associated with happiness, productivity, suicides and homicides. Considering the popularity of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Europe, we wanted to see if there is any association between performance in the competition and life satisfaction and suicides. We used interview data from more than 160,000 people in Europe collected from 2009 to 2015 and found that better performance in the contest was associated with higher levels of life satisfaction in the country. Winning the competition did not confer any additional advantage. When comparing bad performance in the ESC with no participation at all, we found that even bad performance was associated with higher satisfaction with life compared to absence from the competition.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: Although our focus is the Eurovision Song Contest, I think the take away message is more general. Factors in the public sphere can be associated with life satisfaction and, consequently, with mental and physical health. Success in the ESC may indeed have an effect on these outcomes, but, more likely, it is an indicator of how well a country is doing in general, which can have a major impact on people lives and health.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: There is a lot we don’t know regarding the multiple influences that shape our lives and impact our health and life satisfaction. It would be great if this study can motivate researchers to investigate these influences further and understand how we can indirectly improve population health.

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Last Updated on May 12, 2018 by Marie Benz MD FAAD