by Maria Giovanna Faiella
With the Feel Good information campaign, training courses in schools for students, teachers and parents. The appeal: invest in health education and recognize obesity in the essential levels of care
Talking about obesity and overweight in schools? Almost all of the students interviewed consider it useful and almost six out of ten students would like to participate in a project dedicated to these themes. One in three adults, however, admits to being misinformed about overweight, obesity and related risks. These are some data that emerged from the survey «Preventing obesity and its risks is possible», which is one of the activities envisaged by Feel Good, the information and awareness campaign on obesity aimed at adolescents and adults through training, prevention and active involvement of citizens, starting from the youngest.
The campaign in schools
The campaign, promoted by Cittadinanzattiva in collaboration with Federfarma and with the unconditional support of Novo Nordisk, involved students from five high schools in three regions (Lazio, Sicily, Piedmont) (the «Tommaso D’Oria» higher education institute of Ciriè , Turin; «Giovanni Sulpicio» high school in Veroli (FR); «Giuseppe Peano» scientific high school in Palermo) and 105 pharmacies, in the same cities, that have joined the initiative.
In schools, around 150 children completed an interactive online information-training course, created by experts and aimed at acquiring basic knowledge on three specific topics: physical and mental well-being, promoting body positivity, recognizing and addressing body shaming phenomena in life daily and online.
A similar training course was reserved for teachers and families to strengthen the role of the educational community in preventing and supporting the treatment of obesity.
Students “health informants”
The students, in turn, were the protagonists of peer-to-peer training aimed at their classmates from the five institutes, playing the role of “health informants”; they then administered an anonymous questionnaire to classmates from other classes in their institution. 325 questionnaires were collected. Well, one student in two considers obesity “a pathology capable of causing an illness”, for almost two students in five it is an eating disorder; for two out of three students there is not a single cause that determines obesity, but several causes linked together (genetic predisposition, environmental causes, pathologies, drugs, etc.). Obese kids are more subject to bullying (over 90% say this) and have more difficulty fitting into a group (almost 70% of those interviewed say this).
For their part, the 105 pharmacies that participated in the survey administered a questionnaire to users to detect the level of awareness of risk factors. Well, from the 1043 questionnaires filled out by people who are on average highly educated, it emerged that as many as 29 percent admit to knowing little or nothing when they hear about overweight, obesity and related risks.
With respect to the causes, four out of five people attribute them to incorrect personal behavior or inappropriate lifestyles, three out of four to the co-presence of pathologies or metabolic alterations. More than half of those interviewed recognize the importance of genetic factors or family predisposition while socioeconomic conditions and psychological factors are not perceived by many as a significant cause. It is a widespread awareness that obesity does not depend only on the good will of the individual (over 80% support this). At the same time, almost seven out of ten citizens interviewed in pharmacies consider it a real disease and almost 85% believe that it has an impact like other chronic diseases.
Childhood obesity, the risks
Childhood obesity is one of the main risk factors for the future development of many chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disorders, musculoskeletal diseases but also psychological problems.
In our country, according to data (2019) from the “OKkio alla Salute” surveillance system, coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 20.4% of children aged 8-9 years are overweight and 9.4% are obese .
The data (2022) from the «HBSC Italia» surveillance system (Health Behavior in School-aged Children – Behaviors linked to the health of children of school age, from 11 to 17 years) – also coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità – , highlight that 18.2% of children between 11 and 17 years old are overweight and 4.4% are obese.
The role of pharmacies
«The pharmacy is the citizen’s first place of contact with the National Health Service, that link that allows everyone to access, anywhere in the area, the same health services and benefits» recalls the president of Federfarma Marco Cossolo, who adds : «Obesity is a pathology that should not be underestimated and pharmacies want to make their contribution; for this reason we strongly support the Feel Good project, since it is in harmony with the daily activity carried out by community pharmacies, where the pharmacist welcomes, informs and guides the citizen on health and correct lifestyles”.
Include obesity in the essential levels of care
«As the results of the Feel Good campaign highlight – comments Anna Lisa Mandorino, general secretary of Cittadinanzattiva – there is a lot to invest, especially in the young population, also in terms of health education, to remove subjective barriers that still hold back too many people when considering the severity of the consequences that may be faced. To do this, school and even social media can be the privileged context for boys and girls. At the same time – continues Mandorino – it is essential that the health institutions of our country invest in promoting diagnosis and treatment paths for those affected; first of all by recognizing obesity in the essential levels of assistance (Lea) and strengthening specialized and integrated centers and teams which are currently insufficient and present unevenly across the national territory”.
Health promotion programs
Among the other proposals put forward by Cittadinanzattiva: implement an institutional awareness and information campaign on obesity, to reach children, adolescents and parents, encouraging civic education programs in school curricula aimed at promoting health and well-being (as indicated by Law 92 /2019, art. 3 paragraph 2); ensure through the canteen commissions and the local health authorities that the menus provided for in existing contracts are respected, to guarantee healthy and balanced meals for the different age groups; mitigate the impact of socio-economic inequalities on obesity, with interventions aimed at making access to healthy nutrition and physical activity more equitable; counteract the social stigma associated with obesity.
April 16, 2024
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