Monday evening, TuS Eversten sports hall: men and women are running all over the place, kicking footballs at each other and throwing tennis balls back and forth under the watchful eye of health football coach Burkhard Garmann. One of them is Anke Otigbu. You wouldn't know it from looking at the 53-year-old who loves to move: In May 2021, she received two stents to allow her narrowed coronary arteries to pass through again. Unlike most of her team-mates, she narrowly avoided a heart attack.
As a heart patient, she nevertheless received a letter from the University Clinic for Cardiology at Oldenburg Hospital last year. In it: an invitation to health football training. "I immediately thought: this must be fun, if only because you do sport as a team," she says. With this enthusiasm, Anke Otigbu not only became a footballer, but also a participant in the "MY-3F Study: Fit and Fun with Football after Myocardial Infarction or Coronary Heart Disease" at University Medicine Oldenburg. "In the study, we are investigating how this special form of training affects people with serious pre-existing heart conditions," explains Dr Bastian Schrader. The prospective specialist in cardiology and research assistant at the Department for Human Medicine is leading the study, which is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and the German Heart Foundation.
Health football differs significantly from regular football: two teams play on four goals - this makes the game wider and is intended to prevent collision-related injuries. High balls and headers are prohibited, as are tackles - this is also intended to minimise the risk of injury. Coach Garmann: "It's also important that the participants feel confident in their movements, which is why we do a lot of coordination exercises."
The sports teacher and football coach was part of the team that developed the health football concept as part of a previous study. Back then, the focus was on people with high blood pressure. In 2021, the research team, which also included Prof Dr Albrecht Elsässer, Clinic Director of the University Clinic for Internal Medicine - Cardiology at Oldenburg Hospital, was able to prove that regular participation in health football training leads to measurable health improvements. "The systolic blood pressure value of the football group fell from 142 to 130 mmHg on average over the course of a year, while the value in the control group actually rose slightly. These were spectacular results," explains Schrader. 16 of the 103 health footballers were able to manage with less blood pressure medication after one year of training - in the control group it was only six. The footballers were also able to reduce their weight, while the participants in the other group gained weight. The current study now aims to show whether people with heart disease also benefit from these effects.
Fitness watches provide research data
The data that is relevant for the researchers is generated almost automatically during training. The men and women wear fitness watches on their wrists that record their heart rate, calories burned and steps taken. The data is anonymised and sent to the research team via an app. Every three months, the study participants also receive a link by email that takes them to a platform where they can enter their current weight and blood pressure data - also anonymously. Transferring the parameters that are important for the research is also worthwhile for the team from a sporting perspective: Anke Otigbu and her team of around 20 players at TuS Eversten are currently one of 16 health football teams with a total of around 300 members in north-west Germany. Some have been playing football since the hypertension study, around 120 are part of the MY-3F study, while others took up the sport completely independently of the research projects. In late summer, the teams joined together to form the "Fitkickliga" and plan to meet twice a year for a tournament in future. In addition to the goals scored on these occasions, entering health data also scores points for the league ranking.
"Our aim is to get as many people as possible moving," says Schrader. Although it is known that regular exercise reduces the risk factors for a heart attack, it is still difficult for doctors to motivate patients at risk in practice. For this reason, the team deliberately used the Germans' favourite sport in the previous study, modified it slightly and provided trainers with special training.
The team is currently analysing the effects of health football on heart disease patients in detail. However, one important result is already clear: "There were no injuries or emergencies during training," emphasises Schrader. This is an indicator that health football is also gentle enough for this group. Parallel to the evaluation, the team is working on stabilising the sports programme so that it remains independent of studies and research projects. Links to clubs have already been established and sponsors are already involved, for example by paying membership fees.
Anke Otigbu definitely wants to stay involved: "We could even train twice a week if I wanted to."
