Skip Navigation



Health Promotion International Advance Access published online on January 10, 2006
Health Promotion International, doi:10.1093/heapro/dak001
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
21/2/121    most recent
dak001v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by DOBBINSON, S. J.
Right arrow Articles by LIVINGSTON, P. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by DOBBINSON, S. J.
Right arrow Articles by LIVINGSTON, P. M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Article

Prevalence of health promotion policies in sports clubs in Victoria, Australia

SUZANNE JANE DOBBINSON 1 *, JANE AMANDA HAYMAN 1, and PATRICIA MARY LIVINGSTON 1

1 Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, The Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
SUZANNE JANE DOBBINSON, E-mail: Suzanne.Dobbinson{at}cancervic.org.au


  Abstract

SUMMARY In recent years, some health agencies offered sponsorship to sporting associations to promote healthy environments by encouraging clubs to develop health-related policies. However, the extent to which these sponsorship contracts reach their stated aims is of concern. This study aimed to quantify levels of policy development and practice in sports clubs for each of five key health areas, namely smoke-free facilities, sun protection, healthy catering, responsible serving of alcohol and sports injury prevention. Representatives from 932 Victorian sports clubs were contacted by telephone with 640 clubs (69%) participating in the survey. Results suggested that the establishment of written policies on the key health areas by sports clubs varied widely by affiliated sport and health area: 70% of all clubs with bar facilities had written policies on responsible serving of alcohol, ranging from 58% of tennis clubs to 100% of diving and surfing clubs. In contrast, approximately one-third of sports clubs had a smoke-free policy, with 36% of tennis, 28% of country football and 28% of men's cricket clubs having policy. Moreover, 34% of clubs overall had established sun protection policy, whereas clubs competing outside during summer months, [diving (86%) and life-saving (81%)] were most likely to have a written sun protection policy. Injury prevention policies were established in 30% of sports clubs, and were most common among football (56%), diving (43%) and life-saving (41%). This study suggests that policy development for health promotion can be achieved in sports clubs when it is well supported by health agencies and consideration is given to the appropriateness of the specific behaviours to be encouraged for a given sport. Communication between associations and clubs needs to be monitored by health agencies to ensure support and resources for policy development to reach the club level.

Keywords: policy; sponsorship; sport.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 HEALTH PROMOT INTHome page
S. Kokko, L. Kannas, and J. Villberg
Health promotion profile of youth sports clubs in Finland: club officials' and coaches' perceptions
Health Promot. Int., March 1, 2009; 24(1): 26 - 35.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.