What is new. Sandra Caldeira, Joint Research Centre

Transcription

1 What is new Joint Meeting of the High Level Group on Nutrition and Physical Activity and the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health Brussels, 10 June 2014 Sandra Caldeira, Joint Research Centre The European Commission s in-house science service Disclaimer: This presentation and its contents do not constitute an official position of the European Commission or any of its services. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this presentation or its contents sandra.caldeira@ec.europa.eu jrc-nutrition@ec.europa.eu

2 Recent developments and publications Articles in scientific (peer-reviewed) journals Main focus: childhood obesity, school children focussed activities

3 Conference conclusions of the 2014 EU Summit on chronic diseases Strengthen political leadership to address chronic diseases Target key societal challenges More efficient use of available resources Strengthen the role and the involvement of citizens, patients and the health and social sector in policy development and implementation Strengthen evidence and information "The Chronic Diseases Summit calls for a coalition involving all relevant sectors across society, patients and citizens, to address chronic diseases. By acting together, the needed reinforcement of resources and efforts is possible."

4 New WHO initiative to end childhood obesity In 2012, globally more than 40 million children under 5yrs were overweight or obese. If current trends continue, 70 million children under 5 years will be overweight or obese by 2025 Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity" to advice on: the epidemiology and burden economic impact evidence for effective intervention monitoring and surveillance

5 Workshop "School Food and Nutrition in Europe: policies, interventions and their impact" (15-16 May 2014, JRC Ispra, Italy) Organised by: EC Joint Research Centre WHO Euro - Public Health Nutrition Research Ltd Forum for exchange for policy makers, academics and experts in the field to: discuss current strategies in school food policies how to best explore and use them to promote child health identify effective school food policy developments how to address/assess policy implementation how to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation

6 JRC School Food Policies Mapping Systematic description of School Food Policies in Europe 34 school policies (30 countries)/ for each 150 elements described Report to be launched during Euroscience open forum (ESOF 2014, Copenhagen, DK, June 2014) Thereafter available at: Identify elements characteristic of school food policy for Europe, gaps & way forward

7 EU research updates (see also Annex 2 of the EU Action Plan on Childhood Obesity ) ToyBox - Project summary and report from recent workshop: ildren.pdf Habeat - Presentation of main project results: ifamily (IDEFICS Study) News, publications, points of view and a new book on "Childhood Obesity: Ethical and Policy Issues":

8 The future of EU food safety and nutrition policy and the research which underpins EU policy Foresight analysis on "Delivering on EU Food Safety and Nutrition in Scenarios of future change and policy responses" JRC Foresight study "Tomorrow's Healthy Society Research Priorities for Foods and Diets" to be published soon, please check JRC website:

9 Recent developments and publications Articles in scientific (peerreviewed) journals Main focus: childhood obesity, school children focussed activities

10 Updated global overweight/obesity rates and trends Changes in BMI worldwide by sex for adults ( 20 years) and children/adolescents (2-19 years) "Prevalence has increased substantially in children and adolescents in developed countries" "Since 2006, the increase in adult obesity in developed countries has slowed down" No country reports a significant decrease in obesity prevalence over the past 33 years Lancet 2014 [Epub ahead of print]; Related: OECD 2014 obesity update: C3 Collaborating for Health/EASO "Obesity: perception and policy multi-country review and survey of policymakers"

11 "Nature outlook" - OBESITY "For a condition as prevalent and dangerous as obesity, we know surprisingly little about its causes and cures." Issues addressed: Fat tissue metabolism Role of gut microbiome cause or consequence of obesity Heritability of epigenetic changes Neuroscience of hunger and appetite and the role/effect of the modern food environment Drug treatment: part of the solution or last resort? Nature 2014; 508 (7496) Suppl, S50 S95

12 HOT TOPIC Public health nutrition in schools Latest research on the potential contributions of school based nutrition initiatives to public health approaches from a wide range of European and non-european countries Influencing availability of and choice among healthy and unhealthy food options Dealing with complexity and the "captive foodscapes" approach School meal programmes School nutrition policies Publ Health Nutr 2014; 17(6),

13 Cochrane review 1 - Lifestyle interventions improve children's school achievement Evidence suggests that lifestyle interventions can benefit cognitive function and school achievement in children of normal weight. School-based interventions targeting healthy diet and lifestyle education led to small improvements in overall school achievement in overweight or obese children. Increasing physical activity improved scores on tests of mathematics and memory, and improved 'problem-solving' thinking skills Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014; 3:CD

14 Cochrane review 2 - WHO Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework interventions improve certain health outcomes The WHO HPS framework is an holistic, settings-based approach to promoting health and educational attainment in school. Some HPS interventions improve body mass index (BMI), physical activity, physical fitness, fruit and vegetable intake, tobacco use, and being bullied. Insufficient data available to draw conclusions about its effectiveness for other aspects of health and how students perform at school. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014; 4:CD

15 Early Childhood Investments Substantially Boost Adult Health Investigation of the health effects in adulthood of a high quality, intensive early childhood program originally designed as a social experiment aiming to prevent mild mental retardation in disadvantaged children Results: early childhood (age 0-5 y) intervention emphasising development of language, emotional regulation, and cognitive skills resulted in significantly lower prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in their mid-30s Interpretation: study highlights interconnectedness between health (behaviours) and cognitive/non-cognitive skills and proposes early childhood interventions as largely unexplored avenue of health policy Science 2014; 343,

16 Trans fats in biscuits/cakes/wafers sampled during 2012/2013 in 20 European countries Objective: To investigate on efforts in Europe to reduce industrially produced trans fats (I-TF) in popular foods Same approach as previous studies with foods sampled in 2006 and 2009 In 7 countries no trans fat was found In 9 predominantly Eastern European countries products with very high trans fat levels were found Of the 5 countries examined in 2006 & 2013, 3 had unchanged and two had lower levels of trans fats Conclusion: "Subgroups of the population in many countries in Europe still consume I-TF in amounts that increase their risk of coronary heart disease." BMJ Open 2014;4:e005218;

17 Public Health Policy Support: Nutrition visit rition-news read our newsletter Nutrition Research Highlights follow us on