Health Promotion Interventions in Sports Clubs: Can We Talk About a Setting-Based Approach? A Systematic Mapping Review

Abstract

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.

Professional football clubs’ involvement in health promotion in Spain: an audit of current practices

“…This finding is innovative, as it illustrates how cultures and sport systems affect health promotion, and the elements of the Spanish folklore that should be taken into account when using sports as settings for health promotion. Therefore, and echoing Geidne et al's. (2019) findings, for Spanish football clubs to become health-promoting spaces, three conditions are key: (1) organizational readiness;…”

“…Echoing Geidne et al's. (2019) findings, none of the participants in this research reported using a specific theory in the design, implementation and evaluation of their programmes.…”

Measuring Health Promotion in Sports Club Settings: A Modified Delphi Study

“…Many researchers and government agencies have called for innovative settings to promote health (Geidne et al, 2019;Kokko et al, 2016;World Health Organization, 1986) a tool such as this can be a first step to include sports clubs. Previous research has demonstrated a link between health promotion, positive sport experience and perceived health thus, increased development to promote health within sports clubs is needed (Van Hoye et al, 2016.…”

“…As the application of the settings-based model into sport clubs is recent, evaluation tools to measure HP in sports clubs are rare and primarily focused on interviews and self-reported questionnaires (Casey, Harvey, Eime, & Payne, 2011). In addition, a recent literature review on health promotion interventions in sports clubs found that the majority of studies did not use validated measures, but rather non-validated, qualitative measurements (Geidne et al, 2019). Furthermore, those that have been validated are culturally specific (Casey et al, 2011;Kokko et al, 2009).…”

Relationship between coaches’ health promotion activities, sports experience and health among adults

“…In the last decade, the literature has principally focused on identifying the benefits of sports participation and/or physical activity, showing that sports clubs can contribute to physical activity (Van Hoye et al, 2013) and also to sports participants' social, mental and physical health (Eime et al, 2013;Oja et al, 2015). In an effort to go beyond sports or physical activity provision, multiple authors (Geidne et al, 2019;Kokko et al, 2015b), as well as the European Commission's (2007) White Paper on Sport, have argued that sports have the potential to develop health promotion, which could lead to even better sports experiences and health (Van Hoye et al, 2016). In France specifically, policy makers launched the Plan Sport Santé Bien-être (Sport, Health and Well-being) (Honta, 2016) to better link sports and public health.…”