Aims: The aims of this review is to compile and identify key issues in international research about youth sports clubs as health-promoting settings, and then discuss the results of the review in terms of a framework for the youth sports club as a health-promoting setting. Methods: The framework guiding this review of research is the health-promoting settings approach introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO). The method used is the integrated review. Inclusion criteria were, first, that the studies concerned sports clubs for young people, not professional clubs; second, that it be a question of voluntary participation in some sort of ongoing organized athletics outside of the regular school curricula; third, that the studies consider issues about youth sports clubs in terms of health-promoting settings as described by WHO. The final sample for the review consists of 44 publications. Results: The review shows that youth sports clubs have plentiful opportunities to be or become health-promoting settings; however this is not something that happens automatically. To do so, the club needs to include an emphasis on certain important elements in its strategies and daily practices. The youth sports club needs to be a supportive and healthy environment with activities designed for and adapted to the specific age-group or stage of development of the youth. Conclusions: To become a health-promoting setting, a youth sports club needs to take a comprehensive approach to its activities, aims, and purposes.

The extent to which overall PA and/or VPA is gained through sports club participation versus other settings needs to be further studied. Nonetheless, it can be argued that sports clubs have an important position in PA promotion for younger populations.

Many researchers and authorities have recognized the important role that sports clubs can play in public health. In spite of attempts to create a theoretical framework in the early 2000's, a thorough understanding of sports clubs as a setting for health promotion (HP) is lacking. Despite calls for more effective, sustainable and theoretically grounded interventions, previous literature reviews have identified no controlled studies assessing HP interventions in sports clubs. This systematic mapping review details how the settings-based approach is applied through HP interventions in sports clubs, and highlights facilitators and barriers for sports clubs to become health-promoting settings. In addition, the mapped facilitators and barriers have been used to reformulate previous guidelines of HP in sports clubs. Seven databases were searched for empirical research published between 1986 and 2017. Fifty-eight studies were included, principally coming from Australia and Europe, describing 33 unique interventions, which targeted mostly male participants in team sports. The settingsbased approach was not yet applied in sports clubs, as more than half of the interventions implemented in sports club targeted only one level of the socio-ecological model, as well as focused only on study participants rather than the club overall. Based on empirical data, the analysis of facilitators and barriers helped to develop a revised guidelines for sports clubs to implement a settings-based approach to HP. This will be particularly useful when implementing HP initiatives to aid in the development of sports clubs working with a whole setting approach.

This paper seeks to review the current international health-promoting sports club (HPSC) research, drawing together findings based on case studies from various countries to illustrate the status of HPSCs. In addition, future challenges for HPSC research and implementation are considered. The review includes six case studies from five countries. In summary, there are two major research themes in this area, namely 'research into HPSC activity' and 'research into HPSC networks'. The first theme investigates the extent to which sports clubs and/or national sports organisations invest in health promotion (HP) - both in policy and practice. The latter theme is driven by an intention to widen the scope of HPSCs to reach novel internal actors, like parents, siblings, etc., and/or external non-sporting bodies, like communities, schools, etc. The future challenges for HPSC research require a better understanding of the motives, barriers and capacities of sports clubs and coaches. Sports organisations, clubs and coaches generally support the intent of the HPSC concept, but even with the best evidence- or theory-based HP programmes/guidelines/standards, nothing will happen in practice if the nature and capacities of sports clubs are not better acknowledged. Therefore, a call for embracing implementation science is finally made to enhance implementation.

The fundamentals of a genuine partnership are communication, collaboration, shared visions, and willingness of all stakeholders to learn from one another.