{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T04:59:44Z","timestamp":1785387584896,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785369600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n In-person sports event attendance is an important way for residents to encounter sporting events, engage in leisure activities, and expand social interaction. Examining the relationships among in-person sports event attendance, physical exercise, and residents' health-related wellbeing can help clarify the public health value of sports event resources.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n Using data from the 2023 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS 2023), this study measured residents' health-related wellbeing across four dimensions: physical health, mental health, social interaction, and subjective happiness. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, potential mediating-pathway tests, ordered logit models, binary logit models, alternative-indicator tests, and propensity score matching (PSM) were used to examine the association between in-person sports event attendance and health-related wellbeing and the potential behavioral pathway involving physical exercise.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n In-person sports event attendance was significantly and positively associated with residents' health-related wellbeing (\u03b2 = 0.412,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.01). Standardized dimension-specific results showed that the association was relatively more apparent for social interaction (\u03b2 = 0.151,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.01), followed by subjective happiness (\u03b2 = 0.054,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.01) and physical health (\u03b2 = 0.037,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.01); the association with mental health was positive and marginally significant (\u03b2 = 0.025,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.10). In-person attendance was also significantly associated with physical exercise (\u03b2 = 0.419,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.01), and physical exercise was significantly associated with health-related wellbeing (\u03b2 = 0.314,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.01). Bootstrap tests showed an indirect association through physical exercise of 0.123, accounting for 29.8% of the total association. Subgroup regressions supported the positive association across urban-rural residence, age, and education groups, but interaction tests did not show significant between-group differences.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n In-person sports event attendance is consistently and positively associated with residents' health-related wellbeing, with social interaction being the most prominent dimension. Physical exercise may constitute a potential mediating pathway linking in-person attendance and health-related wellbeing. Sports event resources should be connected with community health promotion and public sports services, and support mechanisms should be strengthened to link viewing experiences with everyday physical activity.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1906946","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T04:21:34Z","timestamp":1785385294000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["In-person sports event attendance and residents' health-related wellbeing: empirical evidence from CGSS 2023"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Minmin","family":"Wei","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Physical Education, Hunan University of Technology","place":["Zhuzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qing","family":"Wei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical 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