Regional Director for Health highlights positive results of efforts undertaken in the Azores to combat childhood obesity
The Regional Director for Health said today in Lisbon that the preliminary results of the fifth round of the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative - COSI Portugal 2019 evidence that the work carried out in the Azores to combat childhood obesity "have yielded positive results."
"Although the Azores remain the Region with the highest overweight and obesity rates, the data presented show that the work carried out has yielded positive results. They encourage the Region to continue and improve the interventions implemented as well as to reinforce the need for attention in this area with a view to achieving better results in the future," stressed Tiago Lopes.
COSI is a system for monitoring nutritional status among school-age children (aged between six and eight), which provides comparable data among the different countries included in this childhood obesity monitoring system.
This study involved the participation of 436 children. Among them, 35.9% showed a prevalence of overweight and 18% of obesity.
Regarding the nutritional status by region, Tiago Lopes pointed out data from the Azores, noting that "it was shown at the presentation that all Portuguese regions showed a decrease in overweight prevalence, including obesity between 2008 and 2019. The Azores are the region of the country where the decrease was most significant, dropping from 46.6% in 2008 to 35.9% in 2019."
In order to continue and improve the intervention in this area Tiago Lopes pointed out the Regional Programme for the Promotion of Healthy Eating, which includes "The Super Healthy" programme. This initiative began last year and has already reached schools on the islands of Terceira, Pico and Santa Maria in collaboration with the Portuguese League Against Cancer.
The Regional Director also emphasised the importance of the work carried out by the school health teams, whose activity has reached all schools in the archipelago. Moreover, he highlighted other interventions in progress, such as the partnership with an initiative of the Regional Directorate for Social Solidarity for the preparation of the Handbook on Healthy Eating for Daycare Centres and Kindergartens.