Health promotion profile of youth sports clubs in Finland: club officials' and coaches' perceptions

Abstract

SUMMARYThe purpose of this article is to examine the current health promotion orientation of youth sports clubs in Finland in view of the standards created previously for the health promoting sports club (HPSC). Ninety-seven youth sports clubs participated, and 273 sports club officials and 240 coaches answered the questionnaires. To describe clubs health promotion orientations, an HPSC index was created. The HPSC index was formulated on sub-indices by factor analysis. The sub-indices were: policy, ideology, practice and environment indexes. The results indicate that youth sports clubs are fairly health promoting in general. On average, the clubs fulfilled 12 standards for HPSC out of 22. Every fourth club was categorized as higher health promoting (≥ 15 fulfilled standards), and every third as lower health promoting (<11 fulfilled standards). The variation between clubs was wide. The clubs that had been recognized as exemplary and hence certified by the Young Finland Association were more likely to recognize health promotion than non-certified clubs (OR = 2.36, p = 0.016). The sports club officials were twice as likely to evaluate their clubs as higher health promoting than the coaches (OR = 2.04, p = 0.041). Under the sub-indices, ideologies were recognized best, others less. These findings indicate that minority of the youth sports clubs have realized health promotion comprehensively as a part of their activities. There is a lot of need for development, especially in the area of health promotion policies and practices. The instruments used proved valid and reliable and can therefore be recommended for international use.

Competitiveness and health: The work of sport clubs as seen by sport clubs representatives - a Norwegian case study

“…These can be interpreted as elements of the wider social role of sport (Coalter, 2007) and may therefore be important features for the sport organization in relation to the legitimacy of public support. With reference to Kokko et al (2009) who conducted a quantitative study with an equivalent topic in Finland, both strengths and weaknesses of this study can be evaluated. Third, such reflections lead to suggestions for future research.…”

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“…Po dej ście sie dli sko we w in ter wen cjach z za kre su zdro wia pu blicz ne go jest od daw na zna ne, cze go wy ra zem są cho cia żby progra my Szko ła Pro mu ją ca Zdro wie, Zdro we Mia sta, Szpi tal Pro mu ją cy Zdro wie, a ostat nio ta kże Za kład Kar ny Pro mu ją cy Zdro wie [6,7,8,9,10,11]. Jak do tąd nie roz pa try wa no jed nak obiek tów spor to wych ja ko miejsc, któ re mo gły by słu żyć upo wszech nia niu idei zdro we go sty lu ży cia oraz po pra wie zdro wia nie tyl ko pra cow ni ków obiek tu, za wod ni ków, ki bi ców i go ści, ale ta kże spo łecz no ści lo kal nej [12,13,14,15].…”

“…Setting approach in public health interventions has long been known, a proof of which are such programs like Health Promoting School, Healthy Cities, Health Promoting Hospital and more recently the Health Promoting Prison [6,7,8,9,10,11]. However, so far, not sports facilities had not been considered as places for promotion of healthy lifestyle and improvement of the health of not only the facility employees, players, fans and visitors but also the local community [12,13,14,15].…”

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“…This movement came out of the strategy Health for All in 1980, and was laid out in the 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (WHO 2013). Sport settings including sports clubs, centres for example have been suggested to have much potential in which to embed health promotion (Almond, Almond and Saunders 2013;Donaldson and Finch, 2012;Kokko, Kannas and Villberg 2006;Kokko, Kannas and Villberg 2009;Skille 2010). Eime, Payne and Harvey (2008) also suggests that the inherent association between sport and health means that sport may provide an ideal opportunity to integrate aspects of health promotion into a child's environment.…”