On June 4-23,  Andrej Belak takes part in a regular study stay in our sister Health Sciences-Youth Department at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University in Groningen, partially supported by the Erasmus+ Teacher Mobility Programme.

Prof. Andrea Madarasova Geckova was invited to act as an external examiner for the PhD thesis of Ursula Kenny “Peer influences on adolescent body image” supervised by dr Colette Kelly and dr Michal Molcho at NUI Galway, Ireland (June 6^th, 2017).

Our colleague, Daniela Fiľakovská Bobáková, received her IIa scientific qualification degree this week. Congratulations on behalf of our CoHeReNt research team!

Our colleague from Slovak national HBSC team, Eliška Štefanová, MSc. presented findings from our qualitative study “We want to hear their voice!”  – Qualitative analysis of subjective attitudes of school children related to nutritional behavior as a part of HBSC research at the Student research conference in Ostrava, Czech Republic on 11th of May 2017 and won the first place! More information here.

Our team hosted assoc. prof. Dagmar Sigmundová from Palacký University in Olomouc, Faculty of Physical Culture since May 16th till May 19th 2017. We intensively collaborate on capacity building in the field of physical activity among adolescents.

Expertize of prof. Ivo Čermák in qualitative as well as quantitative research of traumatized adolescent girls was used during his visit  on 17.-20. of May at the Department of Health Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice in form of lecture and workshop on qualitative methodology relevant for ongoing Care4Youth project followed by several consultations on specific topics and prepared manuscripts.

Department of Health Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, PJ Šafárik university organized on 19. 5. 2017 invited lecture by prof. Ivo Čermák from Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic on the topic “Selected findings from the research of traumatized adolescent girls”.

A new WHO report, launched today at the European Congress on Obesity in Portugal, reveals that the number of obese adolescents is continuing to rise in many countries across the WHO European Region.

“Despite sustained efforts to tackle childhood obesity, one in three adolescents is still estimated to be overweight or obese in Europe, with the highest rates found in southern European and Mediterranean countries. What is of particular concern is that the epidemic is on the rise in eastern European countries, where historically rates have been lower,” states Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe. “Ambitious policy action is required to reach the Sustainable Development Goal to halt the increase in childhood obesity. Governments must target efforts and break this harmful cycle from childhood into adolescence and beyond.”

A major global health concern

Childhood obesity is considered one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Obese children are at greater risk of type 2 diabetes, asthma, sleep difficulties, musculoskeletal problems and future cardiovascular disease, as well as school absence, psychological problems and social isolation.

Dr Joao Breda, Programme Manager for Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, stresses that this has severe consequences reaching far into the future: “Most young people will not outgrow obesity: about four in every five adolescents who become obese will continue to have weight problems as adults. As such, they carry forward the increased risk of ill health, stigma and discrimination. Furthermore, the chronic nature of obesity can limit social mobility and help sustain a damaging intergenerational cycle of poverty and ill health.”

The report highlights persisting inequalities in obesity among young people. In general, younger adolescents, boys and those living in families of lower socioeconomic position are more likely to be obese. These findings indicate that ongoing health promotion and disease prevention efforts aimed at reducing childhood obesity are failing to adequately reach these groups.

Preventive action to reverse negative trends

Policy initiatives and interventions need to target high-risk adolescents within the context of families, schools and wider communities, and prioritize policies that improve young people’s access to healthy diets. Efforts are also needed to improve built environments so that physical activity is re-established as an integral part of daily living.

Adolescent obesity and related behaviours: trends and inequalities in the WHO European Region, 2002–2014:

Press kit, including country data overviews, contact details for country leads and figures from the report could be found here.

The report can be accessed here.

Slovak national HBSC report 2013/2014 could be found here.

Comparison of countries from V4 region could be found here here.

 

For a quick overview of how Slovakia and other countries are comparing against each toher, the following visualizations are available:

National trends (2002-2014)

International comparisons (2014)

Research project proposal submitted to Slovak Research and Development Agency was approved on May 12th, 2017!

Our team (J. Rosenberger, P. Kolarcik, D. Bobakova, J. Holubcikova, L. Bosakova, A. Belak, E. Cepova) will collaborate in frame of project APVV-16-0490 Utilization of the health literacy profile to improve the management of chronic diseases in period 7/2017-6/2021.

During 9.-11. of May 2017, our colleague Jaroslava Kopčáková  visited the Palacký University in Olomouc, Faculty of Physical Culture as she carried out several consultations about projects focusing on the area of healthy and active lifestyle of children and young people.