Promoting healthy lifestyles in the Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy: the “Move your health” project
Sara Carneri
A new project to promote healthier lifestyles and reduce health inequalities is being implemented in 3 Italian provinces: Bolzano, Trento and Verona. Coordinated by the Local Heath Unit of the Autonomous Province of Trento, the "Move your health" project (an integrated path towards the prevention and management of overweight and obesity), proposes tools and initiatives aimed at helping families to choose healthier lifestyles and reducing health inequalities associated with outreach activities, involving migrant or socioeconomically disadvantaged families.
A whole-of-government and health-in-all-policies approach to reduce health inequalities
Evidence from across the WHO European Region indicates that higher rates of obesity among groups with low socioeconomic status may in part be due to their greater exposure to environments where there are barriers to accessing healthy foods and engaging in physical activity. Counteraction to these barriers, starting in early life, is thus key to improving the health, well-being and quality of life of the population and reducing health inequalities.
Data of 2 Italian health-surveillance systems – Progressi delle Aziende Sanitarie per la Salute in Italia (PASSI) and OKKIO alla Salute (part of the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) project) – show a high prevalence of overweight and obesity among both adults and children, which is contributing to a large proportion of noncommunicable diseases in the Province, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes. Not only do these diseases shorten life expectancy and reduce quality of life, but their greatest impact is also felt among the most disadvantaged groups of society.
The WHO “European Food and Nutrition Action Plan 2015–2020” encourages action in a range of policy areas to improve the availability, affordability and accessibility of healthy foods. The goal is to enhance the overall quality of the diet and, ultimately, the health and well-being of the population through a whole-of-government, health-in-all-policies approach.
About the "Move your health" project
To address the above challenges, in 2017, thanks to a grant from the National Institute for Migration and Poverty (INMP), the Health and Social Policy Department and the Local Health Unit of the Autonomous Province of Trento were able to initiate “Move your health” in 3 Italian provinces (Bolzano, Trento and Verona).
The project offers culturally appropriate dietary advice and provides support for the development of free tools for families in the 3 provinces. Examples of these are:
- a multi-cultural healthy-eating mobile app developed by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), a local research institute, which – through interactive games – records food consumption and food frequency (covering foods from all over the world) and provides information aimed at improving diet;
- a multi-cultural healthy cookbook, providing over 60 recipes from migrants from 25 different countries, living in Trento, which meet the guidelines of the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems.
Both the mobile app and the cookbook available online and in print are offered free of charge to family pediatricians as a means of enhancing their advisory activities. The latter can be downloaded from the website of the Health and Social Policies Department.
Public presentations of the cookbook, sometimes including demonstrations of how to cook the recipes, are conducted in various settings, such as bookshops, community centres, schools, fairs, museums, churches and mosques. These promote healthy lifestyles among large audiences while strengthening existing social networks and providing opportunities for socialization and exchange.
In addition, family pediatricians can refer children to playful-movement classes, which are provided in parks and schools by trained instructors from the Italian Union Sport for Everyone (UISP), and the “Smuovi la salute” Facebook page provides information about activities and news relating to nutrition and sustainable lifestyles.
To date, the different outreach activities have involved around 3000 people. A comprehensive evaluation of the impact of the programme is being carried out by the University Ca’ Foscari in Venice and will be available later this year.
WHO European Regions for Health Network
The Autonomous Province of Trento is a member of the WHO European Regions for Health Network (RHN), Since 1993, RHN has helped regions to accelerate the delivery of improved population health. Working with WHO, RHN members aim to put Health 2020 into action in their own area.
