Evaluating how the game of snooker can make a positive contribution to enhancing people's well-being in the later years

The purpose of this small scale study was to measure, evaluate and discuss how snooker could possibly contribute to an older person’s well-being. Six participants from Age UK were selected after completing a pre-screening exercise to see if they were eligible to take part in the study. This study also sets out to focus and measure the well-being of older people before and after playing snooker for a set period of weeks. Scores taken for well-being measurements were from the well-established Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS). The WEMWBS is a scale of 14 positively worded items that assesses a population's mental well-being. The WEMWBS scale for this study was scaled with 14 statements of which four statements related to the snooker activity that participants had taken part in, and results were discussed respectively. Outcomes of this study suggest that snooker, as a leisurely pursuit, can positively contribute and positively impact an older person’s well-being in a variety of ways, from aspects of their daily lives to their experiences of actively playing snooker. What is paramount from the research’s findings is that snooker for older people has the ability to build social participation, knowledge building especially around the game of snooker, engagement in sports and most of all, maximising a social experience. There is scope for the study to be investigated further with a larger sample of older people, but for now, this study facilitates a sta