Table 1.

Stages of health promoting sports federations inspired by (14).

	Stage	Core perspective	Definition	Action of national sports federation
0	Null			No communication on legal requirements related to health/reducing health risks.
1	Passive stage	The problem and solution rest within the behavior and actions of individuals	Safe sports offer fostered by sports federations	Promoting safe and secure sports activities (legal requirements to protect sports participants: doping, warming up, etc.). Sports clubs may independently undertake initiatives in HP.
2	Active stage	The problem lies within the behavior of individuals, some solutions lie in the setting	Sports federations promoting health	Promoting health benefits of sports for sports clubs and participants and signposting HP activities to sports clubs, but not actively engaging in HP programs.
3	Transmissive stage	The problem lies within the setting, the solutions lie in learning from individually-based projects	Health Promotion in Sports Federations	Sporadic HP events organized by the sports federation (event day), on a single health behavior or topic; Encouragement from sports federation to sports clubs to deliver club-based HP activities.
4	Organic stage	The problem lies within the setting, the solutions lie in the actions of individuals	Sports Federation Health Promotion programs	Dedicated programs developed by the sports federation to enhance sports club’s activities around HP. The sports federation is actively involved in becoming a platform for sports clubs and external partners to meet for HP
5	Comprehensive approach stage	The problem and solutions lie in the setting	Health Promoting Sports Federation	HP is integrated in the vision, values, activities and training courses of the sports federation. Health is considered in the organizational structure and decision-making processes at all levels of the sports federation. The sports federation invests ongoing resources in HP in the long-term, to promote health beyond health topics. The sports federation collaborates with external partners on HP. The sports federation’s policies are based on monitoring and evaluating previous activities.