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

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.