Communicating the results of the Surveillance System on children’s BMI, eating habits and physical...
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Transcript of Communicating the results of the Surveillance System on children’s BMI, eating habits and physical...
Communicating the results of the Surveillance System on children’s BMI, eating habits and physical activity
to their families and paediatricians
Background
In 2008 the Ministry of Health initiated the national
research project PInC -Programme of Information and
Communication- which aims to promote awareness and
empowerment processes in the population to enable
individuals and communities to make informed choices for
healthy lifestyles. This contributes to the Italian version of the
WHO Programme Gaining Health (the European Strategy for
the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases).
Several information and communication
activities and initiatives have been planned, considering
that for effective communication, it is crucial to translate
technical-scientific information into understandable language
so that messages are clear, and meaningful for their
audience, whose involvement in the production may be very
important.
The first informative materials were developed for
the data collected by the Italian surveillance system named
OKkio alla SALUTE. This concerns children’s Body Mass
Index (BMI), eating habits and physical activity and is
coordinated by the National Centre for Epidemiology,
Surveillance and Health Promotion of the Istituto Superiore di
Sanità.
Cattaneo C.*, De Mei B.*, Perra A.*, Fontana G.**;°, Lamberti A.*;**, Maggio Cavallaro G.*, Possenti V.*, Spinelli A.*
*National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome; **University of Milan, Milan; °University of Washington, Washington DC
Results
16 of the 18 Regions participating to OKkio alla SALUTE have evaluated these materials.
Health professionals have delivered questionnaires to 813 parents of children in 49 primary-schools, and 176 paediatricians.
Parents evaluated the leaflet positively, but criticised the language and suggested to:
- reduce the number of messages underlining those which are essential
- explain better what should be done to improve the overall health and the well-being of their children giving clear messages.
They also recommended to improve the explanations using clear graphics.
Paediatricians suggested that the written part should be more concise, leaving more space for graphs and charts.
TP-WED-240
Methods
An informative leaflet for parents and an informative
chart for paediatricians have been produced:the leaflet contains the important results and general advice
for the parents, the chart emphasises the important role of paediatricians as
well as presenting the main results.
These materials were presented to the regional
representatives of OKkio alla SALUTE for a first review.
After, they were evaluated with respect to their contents,
graphics and development using two questionnaires:
one for parents and the other for paediatricians.
Both the research projects OKkio alla SALUTE and PInC-Programme of Information and Communication to support the objectives of Gaining Health
have been funded by the Ministry of Health / National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
For more information contact: Barbara De Mei [email protected] +39 6 4990 4272
Conclusions
To better communicate health risks and information to the
public for promoting healthy lifestyles, the opinions and
comments of the recipients of informative materials
should be used
to improve the drafts produced by communication
professionals.
Objectives
Because the data, collected on 45,590 children attending
primary school, showed a high prevalence of overweight
and obesity (36%), bad eating habits and sedentary
lifestyles, and low parental perception of the problem,
two target populations were considered:
parents and paediatricians.