IBFAN-GIFA's participation in the European Project to Prevent Obesity

Expanding waistlines: the growing problem of obesity in Europe

On 27 April 2007, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine hosted the launch meeting of
the EU funded project to prevent obesity, abbreviated to "Euro-Prevob". For a period of three years, 15 institutions will work together on the development of policies that will effectively tackle the growing problem
of obesity in Europe. GIFA is one of the members of this consortium, which will use a multidisciplinary
approach.

The project will focus not only on the countries that belong to the European Union, but will reach out also to Eastern and Southern Europe. As a reflection of this broad approach, the consortium counts among its members academic and public health institutions from Slovenia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Denmark and the UK; in addition to Russia, Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The World Health Organization’s regional office for Europe, will also be one of the core partners of the project. IBFAN-GIFA is the only public interest group to belong to the consortium.

The EU-Prevob Project addresses key decision-makers and sectors of society:

* the research community, to improve the understanding of the direct and indirect determinants of
obesity, e.g. what are the direct and indirect causes of obesity? What role do nutrition and physical
activity play in different age groups? Why are there inequalities in obesity rates in different parts of Europe?

* public health policy-makers, by addressing questions such as the pertinence and efficiency of policies
dealing with nutrition, physical activity and present life styles that have an effect on people’s health.

In this respect, the ultimate objective of the project is to develop tools that will enable public health official
and decision-makers to assess the impact of policies on dietary intake, physical activity and obesity
throughout Europe using a common methodology, which should also yield recommendations for
improvements in this area.

During the first year of the project, IBFAN-GIFA will contribute to the setting-up of a database of European experts and stakeholders. In year 2, GIFA will facilitate the coordination of sub-regional analyses in Western Europe and throughout the three years, Lida Lhotska will represent IBFAN-GIFA on the Scientific Committee, responsible for the coherence and planning of the work programme which assures the scientific quality of results.

Periodic progress reports will be published on IBFAN´s web site. Watch out for more news!