International Research Journal of Basic and Clinical Studies

Abstract

Background Mass gatherings, like sporting events and festivals, provide the perfect environment for stressors to affect the population's quality of life. The World Cup was held in Qatar in the months of November and December of the year 2022, and it had an impact on various aspects of life in Qatar, including the health sector. Aim: This research was conducted to assess the psychological impact of sports events along with the social impact of sports events on the Qatar population. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Methodology: This cross-sectional study uses a paper-based questionnaire delivered to 1000 residents in Qatar, 3 months before the commencement of the FIFA football world cup. Results: The study substantiates that a positive impact was perceived by the Qatari and non-Qatari residents who participated in this study when the 2022 Qatar FIFA World cup championship was hosted, despite the controversial media reports about the lack of logistics.

Keywords

Mass gatherings, Stressors, Qatar

INTRODUCTION

Sport mega events' development, consolidation, and expansion have been simply spectacular. FIFA's membership has grown from seven founding members in 1904 to more than 200 national associations during the next century (depending on suspensions and the status of applications). Since the first World Cup in 1930, when only sixteen nations competed and there was no real qualifying stage, the tournament has grown to include thirty-two teams in its quadrennial final, which is based on worldwide qualifying phases in which every national association in the world is eligible to participate. Today, the Olympics, which began as a stage for the physical, corporeal performance of privileged European and North American male elites, welcomes all nations to its Summer Games (Al-Emadi et al., 2017).

Quality of life in the context of mega-sport events

According to the WHO, one's assessment of their place in life "in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live, and in connection to their objectives, aspirations, standards, and concerns" constitutes their quality of life. The WHO's measurement tools, which suggest a fourdimensional framework with a physical, social, psychological, and environmental domain, are most widely used to assess the quality of life. As far as we know, no empirical studies have looked at the four dimensions of quality of life in relation to the hosting of major events. There is suggestive evidence that the act of hosting an event has no main impact on the quality of life of residents of the host city, according to earlier research that used straightforward overall measures of quality of life (and cross-sectional samples, where causeeffect relationships and individual changes are still unclear) (Al-Emadi et al., 2022).

Country environment and sports events

The atmosphere is a representation of all the emotionally engaging stimuli that are present when the event is being hosted. What follows provides justifications for why the perceived environment may affect how the host using the four aspects mentioned above, city dwellers assess their quality of life when a mega-sport event is being held. Environmental psychology's conceptual models give a theoretical foundation for how people are affected by their environment. (The Peninsula et al., 2021) First, when a mega-sport event is held in their hometown, city inhabitants who feel that the atmosphere is pleasant should experience better physical (subjectively evaluated) health outcomes. Residents may perceive their surroundings as a healing environment if they take in the ambiance, which includes the music performed at fan fests and the pleasant feelings communicated by cheerful people who celebrate in the city. The diversion from daily living can ease physical discomfort. Additionally, people who feel like they live in a pleasant environment should be more energetic (The Peninsula et al., 2022). On the other hand, the athletic event may have a positive or bad impact on the population's environment, since it may produce environmental crowding, math gathering, and traffic jams, which may have an impact on their health. Few studies investigated the relationship between sports events and the overall mental health conditions in the general population. Watching sporting events is a common pastime for many people. It is estimated that more than 30 million people regularly watch football (Theodorakis et al., 2019). The Sydney Olympics had a positive social impact on Sydney residents. Positive associations have also been found between sports team identification and psychological well-being. Sports events are, however, also associated with some public health problems. One study but not another showed that sports fans were more likely than nonfans to have alcohol-related problems. Sports spectators have been found to have affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses like those of athletes (Ishac W et al., 2022). Fans of losing soccer teams scored higher than winning fans on boredom and anger and lower on relaxation. The majority of the soccer fans in an Irish study even exhibited a clinically significant degree of psychological distress as a result of the relegation of their team from the English Premier League (Kim et al., 2006). Few studies have reported on the relationship between other lifestyle behaviors (such as dietary habits) and watching sports events. In 2002, the Federation International de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup tournament attracted about 28.8 billion viewers across 213 countries. A substantial increase in admissions for acute myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, and a reduction in emergency psychiatric admissions were reported during the World Cup finals. Very few, if any of these studies, were population-based. The FIFA World Cup is a perfect example of a mega-event held in a different country every four years. Because of this, Qatar has invested significant resources to make its bid the best possible one. However, the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has announced a schedule of sporting events for 2022. The most important is the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, held from November 21 to December 18, 2022. (Figure 1). Examine the relationships between the different variables mainly by measuring the impact generated between the main five dimensions: Community pride, Enhanced community attachment, Pride to improve infrastructure, Event excitement, and Community excitement, with respect to the psychic income. In addition, there is an ongoing debate among scholars on whether sports events generate positive or negative psychosocial impacts on host communities (Van Wee et al., 2022). Burnett (2007) defined sociocultural impacts as mutually beneficial relationships, networking, and social integration. Saayman (2001) stated that sporting events and tours have socially beneficial effects and are encouraged by government policies to familiarize citizens with other parts of their country and build appreciation for their homeland.

This study aimed to assess the psychological impact of sports events along with the social impact of sports events on the Qatar population. In such a way that, on this occasion, sports events and tourists affect the behavior of local people and their relations during their visit. In this case, when meeting and getting to know each other, a favorable situation develops in which an appreciation of each other's character and qualities is supposed to form. The sports event provides a perfect setting for this (Van Wee et al., 2022).

Research design

The research adopted a cross-sectional study by administering the survey to the citizens and residents in the public malls and markets by four healthcare practitioners from the quality and patient safety research team under the supervision of the principal investigator.

A paper-based questionnaire, an interview questionnaire delivered to 1000 residents in Qatar, 3 months before the commencement of the FIFA football world cup. The participants for survey research were recruited by the investigators and a team of four healthcare practitioners under the supervision of principal investigators from the Quality and Patient Safety Research team in public malls / markets.

Subject selection and description

A convenient sampling technique was utilized to select the participants for the present study due to geographical proximity, the inclusion criteria were that the Age of participants is 18 years and above while those less than 18 years were excluded.

Data collection methods

A self-administered interview-based questionnaire was utilized to obtain data from participants. This questionnaire was validated initially on 10-15 participants. The set of 1000 citizens were recruited by a team of four healthcare practitioners under the supervision of principal investigators from the Quality and Patient Safety Research team. They distributed the study questionnaire in public areas after explaining the study’s nature and purpose to those who accept participation. The interviewers were fully trained to conduct face-to-face in-public interviews.

Data analysis

The first step for data analysis was data preparation. Descriptive statistics approach was used where the Median and range described the continuous variables with normal distribution. Frequencies and proportions used for categorical variables. Differences between groups by evaluating the t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test for nonparametric continuous variables, and the χ2 test or Fisher exact test for categorical variables. Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the Correlation between variables. We also used Cronbach’s α value (0.95) in this research to indicate that the usability questionnaire Because of the large sample size in our study, the p-value was set to 0.05 or less to detect true statistical significance and thus avoid Type I errors (Tabachnick and Fidell 2007). Tests of homoscedasticity and normality of error distribution of the model variables did not reveal any violations; thus, the analysis continued with the regression tests. Multicollinearity tests revealed no concerns as variance inflation factor values of less than 10 were observed (Kutner, Nachtsheim, and Neter 2004) (Figure 2).

RESULTS

Table 1 shows the distribution of the sociodemographic characteristics of the males and females who participated in the study, a higher proportion of participants were seen in individuals aged (29) to (38) years (49.9 %). More than half of the participants were males (n=608, 60.8%). Furthermore, most participants were married (80.5) % and from different nationalities with (77.4%), the percentage of Qataris participants were (n=226 with 22.6) (Table 1).

Table 1. Distribution of sociodemographic variables among studied participants.

Table 2 shows that most participants have a college degree with 44.8% while more than a third have graduate / postgraduate degrees and the remaining have a high school or below 19.3 % (Table 2).

Table 2. Distribution of the studied participants according to the level of education.

Table 3 shows the image and status regarding human resources two-thirds of participants agreed that Sports events in Qatar, Promoted human resources development (61%), while more than half agreed that Sports events in Qatar, Improved citizens’ etiquette (56.5)% and Sports events in Qatar brought Technology advancement to the nation(51.7)%, minor of participants disagreed that Sports events in Qatar, Promoted human resources development (1.8%), more than third of participants strongly agreed that In the future, Qatar can host more sports events as I witnessed the Demonstration of economic capability during Sports events in Qatar( 37.9%) In addition to near half strongly agreed that the succession of Sports events in Qatar, Improved the image of Qatar Internationally (41.2%) (Table 3).

Table 3. Image and status.

Table 4 shows that more than a third agreed that they experienced noise pollution during Sports events in Qatar (34.6%), while 28.4 strongly disagreed that the crime rate Increased during Sports events in Qatar (Table 4).

Table 4. Environment pollution and security concerns.

Table 5 shows that more than half agreed that the economic condition is improving after Sports events in Qatar (54.9%) and Tourism development is enhanced in line with international sports events (54.1%) (Table 5).

Table 5. Economic and tourism  development.

Table 6 shows the psychological impact on the population where nearly half of the participants disagreed and strongly disagreed that they were Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge during sports events or mega sports (45.8%) additionally, Half of the participants disagreed that they were Worrying too much about different things during sports events or mega sports (52.1%), the minority of the sample strongly agreed that they were trouble relaxing (8.2%) (Table 6).

Table 6. Psychological  impact.

Table 7 shows the Psychosocial impact of Sports Events according to age regarding image and status participants who were aged 49-58 appeared with a higher mean value (4.30± 0.49), there was no statistically significant relationship between age and image status, international exchange and cooperation, Inconvenience of life, Economic and tourism development, Public Infrastructure (P > 0.05). While there was a statistically significant relationship between age and Environment pollution and security concerns, the psychological impact (P < 0.05) (Table 7).

Table 7. Shows the psychosocial impact of sports events according to age.

Table 8 shows the psychosocial impact of Sports Events according to gender. There was no statistically significant relationship between gender and Image status, international exchange and cooperation, Inconvenience of life, Economic and tourism development, public infrastructure, and Psychological impact regarding the Psychosocial impact of Sports Events according to gender (P < 0.05). There was a statistically significant relationship between gender and Environment pollution and security concerns regarding the Psychosocial impact of Sports (P >0.05) (Table 8).

Table 8. Psychosocial impact of sports events according to gender.

Table 9 shows the Psychosocial impact of Sports Events according to marital status there was a statistically significant relationship, between marital status and Image and status, international exchange and cooperation, and Economic and tourism development regarding the psychosocial impact (P>0.05)

There was no statistically significant relationship between marital status and Inconvenience of life, Environment pollution and security concerns, public infrastructure, or psychosocial impact regarding psychosocial impact (P < 0.05) (Table 9).

Table 9. Psychosocial impact of sports events according to marital status.

Table 10 shows the Psychosocial impact of Sports Events according to the level of education, there was a statistically significant relationship between the level of education and the image status, psychosocial impact (P<0.05) (Table 10).

Table 10. Psychosocial impact of sports events according to the level of education.

DISCUSSION

Researchers are interested in identifying the reasons behind organizing mega sports events in the Arab World. Few have addressed the influence on the community or targeted the psychosocial impact that can be achieved, while many have concentrated on the economic and political aspects. These occasions are crucial for uniting and tying together communities, boosting pride, and generating excitement (Crompton, 2004). This work gets one step closer by assessing the psychosocial impact of sports events on Qatar’s population, this study confirms that such intangible impact was significant, and indicates that the perceived impact on the population from different backgrounds and cultures was positive. This study extends to measure the impact associated with subgroups of the population in Qatar in particular. This relative influence was consistent with prior work on the impact of hosting sports events considering different demographic variables (Truno, 1995; Kim and Petrick, 2005; Wicker and Sotiriadou, 2013; Al- Emadi et al., 2017, 2022). The current study confirmed previous assertions that most of the focus was on positive as well as economic impacts. The results show that economic impacts mostly include benefits, such as new investment in infrastructures, new employment opportunities, increased tourism figures, and new tax revenues (Cheung et al., 2016). Our study agrees with a study by Theodorakis et al. (2019), fans from the Middle East were highly involved with football, while males were more involved than females. Similarly, Al- Emadi et al. (2022) highlight that the context of football will generally attract more males compared to females given the more sociocultural norms that govern Qatari society. In contrast, Al-Emadi et al. (2022) highlighted that female in general have a higher concern regarding the hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup than males which could be due to some cultural challenges. The current study solved the argument about Previous studies which highlighted that the place where residents grew up influences their perceptions (Lankford, 1994; McCool and Martin, 1994; McGehee and Andereck, 2004. Therefore, the authors argue that Arab youth nationals born and raised in Qatar can perceive a higher positive impact than non-Arab youth nationals which resulted in more psychological attachment by the Arab youth residents than the non-Arab youth residents. This study demonstrates he agreement of all nationalities on the positive impact of psychosocial and economic tourism dimensions. The 2021 FIFA Arab Cup, a warmup for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, echoed this trend with 89% of ticket sales coming from within Qatar and only 11% from outside the country (The Peninsula, 2022). The Arabs of Qatar and visitors came to see their national teams play football despite the region's volatility and the fallout from Covid-19 (The Peninsula, 2021). Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan were among the top nationalities purchasing tickets, while Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq were among the top nationalities and residents purchasing tickets (The Peninsula, 2022). In addition to domestic demand, we saw an increase in bookings from international travelers, particularly those coming from close by (The Peninsula, 2021). This bodes well for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in terms of generating higher psychic income for Arab nationals generally and among the youth in particular because support from Arab nations for the World Cup is in line with the positioning of the World Cup as representing the Arab World (Centre for International and Regional Studies).

CONCLUSION

The study highlights that a positive impact was perceived by the Qatari and non-Qatari residents who participated in this study when the 2022 Qatar FIFA World cup championship was hosted, despite the media controversial reports about the lack of thereof. The findings seem to illustrate that even when confronting advertising campaigns to criticize the organization of the tournament hosting sports events can still be beneficial to society. This study covers an important part not highlighted previously in the literature. By evaluating the psychosocial income received within subgroups during and after the event, decision-makers can modify their strategies to have a higher impact in reaching their objectives by assessing the cumulative impact of hosting major international sports events. In our case, these results will provide a better projection for the implementation of Qatar 2030 vision objectives. Future studies should also explore the psychological and societal changes that occur after large sports events.

Study limitations

This study used a convenient sampling technique to sample from the whole Qatari and white-collar expatriate population. Thus, the results may generalize to the populations sampled. Future research can examine bluecollar workers’ perceptions in Qatar to establish how financially and potentially socially disadvantaged populations perceive the World Cup preparations. In addition, the items generated were adapted to fit the cultural context of this study. Perhaps, in other countries, more relevant items have to be created and utilized. Furthermore, the cultural values of the host residents could be an antecedent of perceived impacts and could be investigated in a future study. Future research should also continue with a longitudinal design of this research.

Ethics statement

Hamad Medical Research Center IRB Committee reviewed and approved the studies involving human participants. All participants had to agree to consent in order to proceed with the study.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are especially indebted to our research team who participated in the data collection process and implementation of research procedures, Ms. Tintu Elizabeth Mathew, Ms. Suni Vinoy, and Ms.Ugnbad Abdullahi – corporate Quality and Patient safety.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.