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PREVENT – Improving and upscaling primary prevention of cancer by addressing childhood obesity
Programme: Horizon Programme
Project Status: ONGOING (July 2023 – June 2027)
What aims and scope
PREVENT aims to identify and overcome barriers in implementing effective strategies against childhood obesity as well as to improve the upscaling of primary interventions for weight control management in childhood and adolescence, with the ultimate goal of reducing cancer risks in adulthood. The project will address upscaling challenges by researching barriers to current interventions and policies. It will introduce context-aware interventions and user engagement strategies to overcome bottlenecks and expand to diverse settings.
How it will become possible
The project will create inter-disciplinary Communities of Practice (CoP) composed of various stakeholders (i.e. physicians, oncologists, obesity associations, guardians, scholar units, educators, nutritionists, policy-makers, ministries, healthcare institution decision-makers in various care settings, etc.) for supervising the design, adaptation, implementation and assessment of the proposed interventions. Initially, current intervention policies and weight control strategies, especially in childhood and adolescence, will be examined.
Three Living Labs will engage 6,000 members, facilitating the co-design of successful interventions. Over 10,000 schools and 3.3 million students (ages 9-16) will be targeted through outreach efforts. The project aims to establish a framework for continuous assessment and validation of new policies, optimising evidence-based strategies for scaling up and widespread adoption. By doing so, PREVENT seeks to minimise cancer risk and promote healthier lifestyles among children and adolescents.
PREVENT will employ a comprehensive methodology to accelerate scaling-up of weight control interventions. It will identify barriers, survey successful practices, and develop legislative proposals, considering constitutional, legal, and privacy constraints, to address scaling-up challenges.
Where EHMA delivers
EHMA will design the framework for the PREVENT scaling-up model to extract specific implementation research pathways based on which the scaling-up outreach actions will be designed to maximise their impact and efficiency. EHMA will also evaluate the implementation of PREVENT results and innovation packages not only within the pilot cases but also in other European countries and regions. EHMA will explore the uptake of the PREVENT tool and methodology by healthcare institutions.
In addition to that, EHMA will develop a comprehensive plan on how the project will create health and societal impact; ensure wide outreach to multi-stakeholder communities with tailored messages; and develop a strategy on how the project results will be exploited beyond the project lifecycle.
Read the press release for the project launch.
Download the Project Brochure.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or HaDEA. Neither the European Union nor HaDEA can be held responsible for them.
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I have been active in EHMA since the first years of the '90s and I have seen its evolution from a small association of members interested in sharing knowledge on health management practices to the current status of reference and advisory key player for EU, health systems and organisations, stakeholders associations, industry and universities. EHMA is now a unique knowledge hub, policy advisor, community of practice and network of best in class organisations involved in health policy and management. A place where health managers can build their competences, policy-makers and stakeholder associations envision how to implement and sustain change through health management, industry leaders understand how to engage more effectively with health organisations and systems. The right place to nurture and grow health management capabilities and capacity for every stakeholder of health systems.
Prof. Federico Lega, University of Milan, Italy
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Prof. Todorka Kostadinova, Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria
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Prof. Sandra C. Buttigieg, University of Malta, Malta
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Prof. Axel Kaehne, Edge Hill University, UK
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Dr Alexandre Lourenco, APAH - Association of Portuguese Hospital Managers, Portugal
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Prof. Ann Mahon, University of Manchester, UK
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