Data of older aged orienteering athletes from the Compass project (2025-2026; Funded by the European Union)

This is the dataset of older aged orienteering athletes (50+) included in the Compass project (2025-2026; Funded by the European Union). The aim of this study was to explore health-related benefits of orienteering. The hypothesis was that older aged orienteers show better health status than their peers from general population. Older adults actively practicing and competing in orienteering were recruited from the project partners’ national orienteering federations, from orienteering clubs from around the Europe, through social media platforms, and also based on the start list of the World Masters Orienteering Championship. These data were compared with data from general population in Europe as reported in, and provided by, the “Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe” (SHARE) project (https://share-eric.eu).