Good practices and health policy analysis in European sports stadia: results from the 'Healthy Stadia' project

Abstract

Sport plays an important role within society and sports stadia provide significant settings for public health strategies. In addition to being places of mass gathering, stadia are often located in less affluent areas and are traditionally attended by 'harder to reach' communities. Unfortunately sports stadia and the clubs they host are rarely perceived as places that promote healthy lifestyles. Fast food, alcohol and tobacco are commonly advertized, served and consumed during sports games giving the spectators and TV fans contradictory messages concerning healthy choices. As part of a wider programme of work part-funded by the European Union, a study was therefore designed to explore current 'good practice' relating to positive health interventions in sports stadia across a number of European countries. Using a specially designed questionnaire, information about health policies and good practices relating to food offerings in stadia, physical activity promotion among local communities, tobacco policy, positive mental health initiatives, environmental sustainability practices and social responsibility policies were collected in 10 European countries (England and Northern Ireland, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Spain and Sweden) involving 88 stadia. The audit results show that stadia health policies differ considerably between specific countries and sports. Based on the literature analysed, the examples of good practices collected through the study, and the subsequent instigation of a European Healthy Stadia Network, it shows that there is considerable potential for stadia to become health promoting settings.

Libraries as ‘everyday’ settings: the GlasgowMCISSproject

“…Recent work has thus promoted what Torp et al (2014) call 'everyday' settings: e.g. pharmacies (Maher et al, 2014); care homes (Krajic et al, 2014); sports stadia (Drygas et al, 2013); tennis clubs (Pluim et al, 2014); shopping malls (Haber, 2013); prisons (Caraher et al, 2002) and even 'virtual' social networking sites (Loss et al, 2014). In this context, libraries have recently emerged as another potential setting (Dowse & Sen, 2007), being seen as particularly accessible and equitable 'hubs' (Parker & Kreps, 2005) that can variously: provide access to health information (Linnan et al, 2004); promote health literacy (Chobot, 2010); link to 'signposted' services ) and ultimately foster 'empowerment' and 'social capital' (Johnson, 2010).…”

A perspective from key stakeholders on football and health improvement

“…3 There is also an increasing recognition of the role professional sports clubs, including football clubs, can play in improving the public health of local communities and those who interact with their sports venues. Building on European research carried out from 2007-2009, 4 the UKbased social enterprise European Healthy Stadia Network (hereon Healthy Stadia) works with professional sports clubs and governing bodies of sport to develop stadia as 'health promoting settings', offering assistance through guidance documents, case studies of good practice, benchmarking tools and research.…”

Healthy stadia: an insight from policy to practice

“…One key area of this shift has been within the realm of stadium management, specifically, how sports stadia can provide a setting to deliver on public health outcomes. Over the last ten years in particular, the potential for using sporting stadia as health promoting settings has started to be realised, not only to the benefit of local communities, but also to help achieve the corporate objectives of the clubs and stadia involved (Drygas et al 2013). Sports stadia play iconic roles amongst fans and in the communities that they are located, capable of engaging large numbers of people both in the ground and surrounding area.…”