9th annual meeting and 4th conference of HEPA Europe

Helsinki, Finland, 23-24 October 2013

The 2013 event was kindly hosted and the conference organized by the Fit for Life Program and the UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research. The conference was also co-sponsored by the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

The conference featured key note lectures on measurement of physical activity, on health effects of sedentary behavior and on injury prevention. It also included an overview on the new Finnish strategy for physical activity promotion by Riitta Kaivosoja, Director General of the Ministry of Education and Culture, on the European WHO activities on physical activity promotion and NCD prevention by Joao Breda, Programme Manager Nutrition, physical activity and obesity, and European Commission activities on HEPA promotion, by Yves Le-Lostecque, Head of Sport Unit, DG Education and Culture. 11 parallel conference sessions, over 70 poster presentations and parallel sessions of 7 HEPA Europe working groups also were part of the event.

At its 9th annual meeting, HEPA Europe adopted its new work programme 2013/2014 and elected Tommi Vasankari, Director of the UKK Institute as its new chair. In addition, 12 new applications for membership were evaluated and approved.