Santiago de Compostela, October 5-6, 2023 – The Ministry of Health brings together public health specialists from 12 countries to share tools against childhood obesity
Santiago de Compostela, October 6, 2023 The Ministry of Health hosted for two days a meeting of specialists in Public Health, from 12 countries of the European Union, with the aim of sharing experiences on the application of the “Health4EUkids” Project, a community initiative that promotes healthy lifestyle habits among young people.
Not in the case of Galicia, the Xunta will promote healthy lifestyle habits and the reduction of childhood obesity among the youth of the City Council of Ponteareas. Thus, during the next two years, the General Directorate of Health will lead the development of actions aimed at the population of this municipality -aged between 6 and 13 years-, betting on the promotion of physical activity, healthy eating and equity in health.
The “Health4EUkids” programme aims to implement good practices based on the good results obtained in interventions carried out in other countries. Thus, the success of his piloting, carried out in 2018 in the Grünau neighborhood of Leipzig (Germany), led to the interest of other countries of the European Union (Greece, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal , Slovenia and Spain).
Today, representatives of the General Directorate of Public Health, held a meeting with the European working group “Grünau moves”. Thus, the deputy general director of Programs to promote healthy lifestyles, Silvia Suárez Luque; and the head of the Healthy Lifestyles Promotion Programs, Carolina Muñoz Iglesias; They addressed together with the representatives of the European entities that collaborate not project how is the experience of applying it in their territories.
Through the implementation of this project, Sanidade will create a health network with actions established to promote healthy lifestyle habits among children, their families and, indirectly, with the rest of the community. The purpose of these actions is to achieve healthier contours, carrying out participatory, intersectoral work with a perspective of equity in the community.
For its execution, representatives of the local government of Ponteareas and the Ministry of Health, met on September 19 to establish a multidisciplinary working group with representatives of the different levels related to health promotion in the city council.
Zero Obesity Plan
The incident of overweight and obesity in the world population tripled in the last fifty years, being already considered a serious public health problem, increasing risk factors in the onset of chronic diseases such as diabetes or some types of cancer, such as colorectal.
To combat its appearance among the Galician population, the Xunta de Galicia launched the Obesitye Zero Plan in 2022. A roadmap that is structured in three strategic axes, and that has 11 objectives and 41 actions.
The first of the axes focuses on strengthening health-promoting environments, identifying five of them on which to act, politics, school, work, community, and health and socio-health. The second of the axes is based on training for making healthier choices, and the third affects research and innovation in health promotion.
In Galicia, more than half of the population is overweight. According to the European Health Survey carried out in 2020, 39% of the Galician population is overweight and 16.5% is obese, representing a total of 357,000 Galicians. In addition, in terms of healthy lifestyle habits, 41.3% of the adult population is sedentary; only 38.4% of the population performs physical exercise in leisure time; Only 3 out of 10 people consume vegetables, salads and vegetables daily and this same number, 3 out of 10 people, consume sweets daily.
#HaDEA
The “HEALTH4EUkids” Joint Action aims to implement health promotion and prevention strategies for child obesity across European countries. It seeks to share best practices and research findings, particularly focusing on the initiatives Grunau Moves from Germany and Smart Family from Finland. The project involves knowledge transfer, cooperation between member states, policy development, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles in families and communities. Its goal is to prevent childhood obesity, increase physical activity and healthy diet, and ensure the sustainability and transferability of successful practices to other member states.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s EU4HEALTH Programme under the Grant Agreement no 101082462
