Operationalising the health-promoting sports club framework for sports club managers: an iterative expert consensus study

Sports club managers play an important role in integrating health promotion into the policies, environments and everyday practices of grassroots, voluntary and community-based sports clubs. However, they often lack practical guidance on how to operationalise health promotion within their managerial roles. Drawing on the health-promoting sports club (HPSC) model, this study aimed to develop a theoretical framework and intervention components to support sports club managers in implementing health promotion in sports club settings. An iterative expert consensus study was conducted with 22 contributors, comprising a five-member project team and 17 invited international experts in health promotion and sport. The study involved five two-hour expert meetings and an iterative process of reviewing, discussing and refining conceptual framework components. The process aimed to define the health-promoting sports club manager, adapt the HPSC framework to the managerial level, and develop intervention components to support health-promoting management. The expert group refined the definition of the HPSC and developed a definition of the health-promoting sports club manager, accompanied by seven guiding principles. The HPSC framework was operationalised for managers through the five Ottawa Charter action areas, four progression stages and an adapted logic model. In addition, 43 manager-relevant intervention components from the source HPSC framework were transformed into practical implementation guidance specifying individual- and board-level actions. The study provided a framework explicitly guiding sports club managers in operationalising health promotion. The findings contribute to the theoretical and practical understanding of health-promoting management and offer researchers, policymakers, and sports club managers a clearer basis for integrating health promotion into sports club settings.