1a Conferenza Europea Salute e Benessere dei Giovani - Roma 16-18 giugno 2010
food education
The 2008 World Health Organization report on world health status underlines that a better use of the existing preventive measures could reduce the overall impact of the disease by 70% and calls upon States to return to primary health care. It has been recognized that the root causes of many diseases are beyond the control of the health sector and that they must be addressed with a holistic approach involving the whole society, young people included, to address issues that affect their health.
On the other hand, it is vital monitoring the younger generation lifestyles to plan more effective prevention policies and to evaluate the results achieved through their implementation.
Unhealthy lifestyles which include tobacco, drug, alcohol abuse, sedentary activity or use of doping substances in sport, inadequate or improper diet and obesity are all risk factors that represent a significant cause of disease occurrence. Due to the different and various aspects related to lifestyles and their interconnections, the assessment of their impact on health is highly complex. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the possible synergistic interactions between unhealthy lifestyles that have a multiplier effect on the disease onset, particularly among younger people.
Several factors influence lifestyles, including biological, cultural and environmental, social, economic and last but not least relational ones. This last point is particularly significant when defining young people as intervention target.
Therefore, it is very important that approaches to health promotion for the improvement of lifestyles based on proper nutrition and physical and motor activity take into account all the determinants. Still the WHO stresses that in order to reduce the burden of the diseases and to obtain a significant improvement in population health status, the society as a whole should be motivated to play a more positive and responsible role in the adoption of healthy lifestyles. Therefore, the role of education, information and communication is essential for future generations as well as the inclusion of specific programs in school curricula, in all educational programs, in family habits, which contains the proposition of healthy dietary habits and the promotion of projects aimed at approaching young people to physical and motor activity.
The WHO, in this respect, recommends to collect and share experiences and, where appropriate, to harmonize at the European level the methodologies currently used to establish models of good practice for health promotion and prevention.
On the other hand, it is vital monitoring the younger generation lifestyles to plan more effective prevention policies and to evaluate the results achieved through their implementation.
Unhealthy lifestyles which include tobacco, drug, alcohol abuse, sedentary activity or use of doping substances in sport, inadequate or improper diet and obesity are all risk factors that represent a significant cause of disease occurrence. Due to the different and various aspects related to lifestyles and their interconnections, the assessment of their impact on health is highly complex. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the possible synergistic interactions between unhealthy lifestyles that have a multiplier effect on the disease onset, particularly among younger people.
Several factors influence lifestyles, including biological, cultural and environmental, social, economic and last but not least relational ones. This last point is particularly significant when defining young people as intervention target.
Therefore, it is very important that approaches to health promotion for the improvement of lifestyles based on proper nutrition and physical and motor activity take into account all the determinants. Still the WHO stresses that in order to reduce the burden of the diseases and to obtain a significant improvement in population health status, the society as a whole should be motivated to play a more positive and responsible role in the adoption of healthy lifestyles. Therefore, the role of education, information and communication is essential for future generations as well as the inclusion of specific programs in school curricula, in all educational programs, in family habits, which contains the proposition of healthy dietary habits and the promotion of projects aimed at approaching young people to physical and motor activity.
The WHO, in this respect, recommends to collect and share experiences and, where appropriate, to harmonize at the European level the methodologies currently used to establish models of good practice for health promotion and prevention.
