Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HPSC-PAT (Co-construction of the Health Promoting Sports Clubs-Policy Audit Tool)
Período documentado: 2021-09-01 hasta 2023-08-31
Currently, 12% of European citizens participate in organised sport weekly . Beyond the contribution of sport participation on physical activity, sports clubs could also enhance sport experience and health, sustainable development (Goal 3; Ensure healthy lives and promotion well-being for all at all ages) through health promotion (HP) . These issues have been acknowledged in international (e.g. WHO, CIO) and European-level (e.g. EU Council) policy documents. For example, the WHO Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (2018–2030) highlighted that sport is an underutilised contributor to physical activity. The European Commission White Paper on Sport (2007) also suggested that the HP aspects of sport participation are often underutilised and need to be further developed. Unfortunately, precise mechanisms through which sport can be used as a vehicle to support health behaviours and health status are unclear, especially in how the national to local government interact with sports clubs to support their efforts towards HP. One of the key factors in HP are policies (understood as formal written policies, unwritten formal statements, written standards and guidelines, formal procedures, and informal policies (or lack thereof) that may directly or indirectly affect community or population health ), which can be considered as a primary and necessary step to develop and support HP practice², contributing to enhance health behaviours and health status3. Results of a recent European survey has shown that only 26% of the EU countries reported having a sports clubs for health program implemented . In the present proposal, sport clubs will be defined as having “in common, the provision of opportunities for competition and sports practice, while some can also be considered social organizations, promoting social welfare and health
The HPSC-PAT project has produced 5 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Study 1: The GAA Healthy Club Project: A CFIR analysis (accepted to Health Promotion International)
Study 2: National to local implementation of the “healthy club” project (under revision in Evaluation and Program Planning)
Study 3: From national to local health promoting sports clubs’ policies in the Republic of Ireland (accepted in International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics)
Study 4: Sports clubs need in regard to HPSC policies (Accepted in Health Education Journal)
Study 5: Creation of the Health Promoting Sports Federation Guidelines (Accepted to Frontiers in Public Health)
Participation to conferences
The researcher has taken part to two HEPA network conferences, EUPHA conference, I-PARC conference, UIHPE conference, EU Sport forum conference, to disseminate the work undertaken in the grant.
MSCA dissemination
A video serie from the National Irish Research Council on the promotion of Marie Curie Fellowship has been created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2EIsLUlWCQ
The researcher has been also contributing to two MSCA training at the University of Limerick, making a short presentation, as well as reviewing two applications and sharing my own application.
Teaching/supervision
In 2021-2022, supervision an undergraduate student in her research course and development, Melanie Mc Knight, and she is helping on study 1, for interview conduction and data analysis.
In 2022-2023, supervision 2 undergraduate (Mikey Prendergast and Nathan Bolger) students working on summarizing the benefits of sports for all practice, as well as a systematic literature review on how national sports federation implement physical activity and health promotion, which are contributing to the INTERACT project.
Organisation with Liam Kelly and Catherine Woods, the Physical Activity for Health research cluster Winter School on “Intervention and Policy Implementation Evaluation”, on January 16th-17th 2023, welcome 25 early career researchers and 5 international speakers.
Grant application writing
Association to the grant application writing of a HEA North-South Research Programme, on active future hubs.
Application to the University of Limerick President Excellence and Impact early career award, but was not successful.
Responsibity of the application of the INTERACT Erasmus+ project with University of Limerick as partners, which has been awarded 400 000 euros (with 60 000 for University of Limerick) to work on the development of sport for all among national sports federation.
Application with my home university for a EU funded Doctoral Network program on health promoting sports clubs theoretical model implementation, which was not successful.
Application to Ulysses program to foster mobility between University of Limerick and my home university.
Training
The objective of the training was to reinforce researcher's competences in three area: (1) policy sciences, (2) researchers’ skills, (3) management skills. The training in policy sciences has been realized through the organization of a winter school for PAfH cluster on this topic, the participation to Policy Evaluation Network studies and events, to different pre-conference workshop at EUPHA, as well as a stay at FAU in Germany. The researchers skills training (30 hours of training) has been obtained, and completed by ad hoc training (systematic review, CFIR framework presentation, linear regression training). The management essential badge training (25 hours of training) has been obtained to enhance professional leadership skills.
Study 1: The GAA Healthy Club Project: A CFIR analysis (accepted to Health Promotion International)
Study 2: National to local implementation of the “healthy club” project (under revision in Evaluation and Program Planning)
Study 3: From national to local health promoting sports clubs’ policies in the Republic of Ireland (accepted in International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics)
Study 4: Sports clubs need in regard to HPSC policies (Accepted in Health Education Journal)
Study 5: Creation of the Health Promoting Sports Federation Guidelines (Accepted to Frontiers in Public Health)
Participation to conferences
The researcher has taken part to two HEPA network conferences, EUPHA conference, I-PARC conference, UIHPE conference, EU Sport forum conference, to disseminate the work undertaken in the grant.
MSCA dissemination
A video serie from the National Irish Research Council on the promotion of Marie Curie Fellowship has been created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2EIsLUlWCQ
The researcher has been also contributing to two MSCA training at the University of Limerick, making a short presentation, as well as reviewing two applications and sharing my own application.
Teaching/supervision
In 2021-2022, supervision an undergraduate student in her research course and development, Melanie Mc Knight, and she is helping on study 1, for interview conduction and data analysis.
In 2022-2023, supervision 2 undergraduate (Mikey Prendergast and Nathan Bolger) students working on summarizing the benefits of sports for all practice, as well as a systematic literature review on how national sports federation implement physical activity and health promotion, which are contributing to the INTERACT project.
Organisation with Liam Kelly and Catherine Woods, the Physical Activity for Health research cluster Winter School on “Intervention and Policy Implementation Evaluation”, on January 16th-17th 2023, welcome 25 early career researchers and 5 international speakers.
Grant application writing
Association to the grant application writing of a HEA North-South Research Programme, on active future hubs.
Application to the University of Limerick President Excellence and Impact early career award, but was not successful.
Responsibity of the application of the INTERACT Erasmus+ project with University of Limerick as partners, which has been awarded 400 000 euros (with 60 000 for University of Limerick) to work on the development of sport for all among national sports federation.
Application with my home university for a EU funded Doctoral Network program on health promoting sports clubs theoretical model implementation, which was not successful.
Application to Ulysses program to foster mobility between University of Limerick and my home university.
Training
The objective of the training was to reinforce researcher's competences in three area: (1) policy sciences, (2) researchers’ skills, (3) management skills. The training in policy sciences has been realized through the organization of a winter school for PAfH cluster on this topic, the participation to Policy Evaluation Network studies and events, to different pre-conference workshop at EUPHA, as well as a stay at FAU in Germany. The researchers skills training (30 hours of training) has been obtained, and completed by ad hoc training (systematic review, CFIR framework presentation, linear regression training). The management essential badge training (25 hours of training) has been obtained to enhance professional leadership skills.
From the five different studies, different lessons can be learnt:
1) Lack of overarching HPSC policy and awareness of the HPSC umbrella beyond specific health topic promotion at all level (from national policy-makers to sports clubs)
2) Lack of surveillance system and accountability for sports clubs on health promotion
3) Health topics being priority for sports clubs, especially access to sport before promoting health through/in sport
4) NGBs and LSPs are key actors to support sports clubs, which are limited in terms of resources to do more than they already do.
5) Policy remit in regard to LSPs and local HSE services in terms of health promotion support to sports clubs
1) Lack of overarching HPSC policy and awareness of the HPSC umbrella beyond specific health topic promotion at all level (from national policy-makers to sports clubs)
2) Lack of surveillance system and accountability for sports clubs on health promotion
3) Health topics being priority for sports clubs, especially access to sport before promoting health through/in sport
4) NGBs and LSPs are key actors to support sports clubs, which are limited in terms of resources to do more than they already do.
5) Policy remit in regard to LSPs and local HSE services in terms of health promotion support to sports clubs