Utahns love pickleball and may be healthier for it, study finds

The country’s fastest-growing sports trend — pickleball — is most popular in Utah, according to new research that also suggests it is making its players healthier.

Research from Apple and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston looked at data from thousands of Apple Watch users and study participants who logged time playing pickleball on their watch. The racket-based sport, which is somewhere between tennis and ping pong and combines elements of both, is almost as beneficial as tennis to cardiovascular health, the study found, and is generally good for overall physical and mental health.

And Utahns are playing it more than in any other state, according to the study.

“The [study] offers us remarkable opportunities to follow participants’ behavior changes and the consequences of these changes on health,” said Dr. Calum MacRae, a cardiologist, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and principal investigator of the Apple Heart and Movement Study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Following the growth of pickleball using Apple Watch data allows us to explore emerging trends and the effects of activity on multiple metrics of health and wellness that were not accessible before.”

The study measured data from more than 200,000 participants, all Apple Watch users, who gave researchers permission to analyze their health data. To understand the health effects of pickleball, specifically, researchers analyzed more than 250,000 recorded pickleball and tennis workouts, to see how the sports measured up to each other in various ways.

The study analyzed such factors as maximum heart rate, threshold heart rate (how fast the heart beats after recent intense activity) and workout durations. Participants were also surveyed separately about their mental health.

Tennis workouts were slightly more strenuous, on average, than pickleball workouts, the study found. The average maximum heart rate was nine beats per minute faster for tennis workouts than for pickleball, and tennis players spent more time, on average, in higher-intensity heart rate zones.

But pickleball games lasted longer, on average, than tennis games, and participants were still logging heart rates in “moderate” or “rigorous” heart rate zones — which is good, according to researchers.

Both pickleball and tennis also had notable effects on mental health, the study found. Study participants were invited to participate in optional mental health surveys that included a depression screening tool, the Patient Health Questionnaire-2, which measures the frequency of depressed moods over a two-week period. The study found that indicators of depressed moods were rare across the board, but even lower among frequent pickleball and tennis players by as much as 60%.

“Research is a vital component to our work in health at Apple, and it’s important to see the science behind the mental and physical benefits of activities like pickleball and tennis on Apple Watch users,” said Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, in a news release.

Perhaps the most noteworthy result, researchers said, was just how many people participated in pickleball. Any physical activity is beneficial to your health, the study suggests, so pickleball’s skyrocketing popularity makes it a particularly healthy trend.

“Physical inactivity is a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and a number of other chronic conditions,” Desai said. “Finding an activity that someone enjoys partaking in can help build a routine, whether that means picking up a paddle or a racket.”

The study found that more people played pickleball for the first time than played tennis for the first time in a one-month period. That’s consistent with data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association that found pickleball participation has grown more than 158% in the last three years, making it the fastest-growing sport in the country.

Apple’s research suggests pickleball could be the great athletic equalizer. It was popular across all ages, the study found, and is growing increasingly popular among younger people, though frequent pickleball players were, on average, older than frequent tennis players. Men played both tennis and pickleball more than women, but pickleball had higher female participation rates overall.

“As the sport’s national governing body in the United States, it’s increasingly meaningful to see science behind pickleball using real-world data from Apple Watch,” said Mike Nealy, USA Pickleball CEO, in a news release. “The relatively low-impact, informal, and social nature of pickleball can offer a useful and enjoyable outlet for those looking to increase movement and add to their workouts.”

The study did not answer why, exactly, Utahns are playing pickleball more than people in other states. But Gov. Spencer Cox said he is excited about it.

“It’s awesome that so many Utahns are grabbing the opportunity pickleball offers to incorporate activity into their days,” Cox said, “and this research is a great reminder that exercise of any kind is a powerful way to improve our health over the long term.”

Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.