On 1^st and 2^nd November, CEIDSS attended the launch meeting of the new European project BETTER4U at Harokopio University in Athens, Greece.

BETTER4U is a 4-year project funded by the European HORIZON-HLTH-2022 Programme, which aims to identify and personalise the management of all the determinants of weight gain in order to combat the growing prevalence of overweight/obesity, through public health initiatives and key interventions that are globally adaptable and evaluated in practice.

This project focuses on investigating the global challenge of obesity, studying the problem and offering solutions in a realistic and tangible way, with the support of modern artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and the contribution of experts from around the world.

At this 2-day meeting, the project’s Consortium met to present and discuss the BETTER4U Work Packages, their scientific objectives and tasks, results, deadlines, as well as the contribution of each partner. In addition to the presentations, the meeting included an interactive session where the partners had the opportunity to share ideas and perspectives on the project’s recommendations and dissemination, exploitation and communication plan.

CEIDSS will be a partner in this European project, contributing to the design of behavioural and environmental indicators related to weight gain, the BETTER4ALL pilot study and the development of the clinical trial design. In addition, the CEIDSS team will implement and continuously monitor the intervention, as well as contribute to the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of the intervention.

On October 20th, CEIDSS organized the 1st part of the 2nd edition of the “Career Day – On the Food Route” event, which took place at the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA). This event was attended by young people from the 12th year of the Science and Technology course at the Frei Gonçalo de Azevedo Secondary School in Cascais.

This event was organized with the support of EIT Food, an organization co-funded by the European Union, and was attended by 12th graders from the Science and Technology course at Frei Gonçalo de Azevedo Secondary School, Cascais. The event’s programme included the participation of 7 speakers, unit managers from the Food and Nutrition Department (DAN), who shared their testimonies about their academic and professional careers, as well as the tasks and activities carried out in their day-to-day work at INSA.

The Final Conference of the European project CO-CREATE was held in Brussels on 12 and 13 October. This event featured productive sessions on “system thinking”, the involvement of young people in policy development, the co-creation process in the participating countries, how to boost dialogue between policy and young people, as well as reflections and future prospects based on CO-CREATE’s learnings for research and policy.

CEIDSS Director Ana Rito did a presentation entitled “Generating ideas about future policy – mapping youth systems and alliances: perspectives in Portugal”.

In addition to the presentations, the event featured panel discussions, the sharing of partners’ experiences and participants had the opportunity to try out some of the project’s policy tools, including the Advocacy Toolkit, the CO-CREATE Dialogue Forum Tool and the CO-CREATE project’s interactive tool for preventing obesity in adolescents. In addition, the CO-CREATE Youth Task Force presented an Open Letter – https://exchange.iseesystems.com/public/furkan/cc-interface/index.html#page1.

From 18 to 20 September 2023, the final Best-ReMaP conference, “From Evidence to Action – Sustaining the Impact of Best-ReMaP”, took place in Paris. Best-ReMaP is a European Union project dedicated to promoting children’s well-being and health through an evidence-based approach to addressing crucial issues in their food choices.

The aim of the Best-ReMaP project was to implement health interventions that have proven to be effective, based on practices that have been proven to work in the areas of food reformulation, regulation of food advertising aimed at children and the purchase of healthy foods by public bodies in the agri-food sector, thus helping to increase the supply of healthier processed food options (reducing the salt, sugar and fat of processed foods) available on EU (super)markets.

To mark the end of the 2022/2023 school year, Cascais City Council organized the closing event of the Health in Schools Platform, in which the MUN-SI programme participates, at Quinta do Pisão on 1 July. The event aimed to promote partner initiatives associated with health and well-being.

The children had the opportunity to explore issues related, for example, to food education, socio-emotional skills and oral health, through the promotion of recreational-educational activities and outdoor practices, favouring family contact with nature. Participants were invited to get to know the activities promoted by MUN-SI, such as the Mediterranean Diet game, where their knowledge of healthy eating was put to the test.

On 27 June 2023, the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, in its capacity as the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborative Centre for Childhood Nutrition and Obesity, held a public session in its auditorium in Lisbon to present the COSI Portugal 2022 Report.

On this occasion, Professor Ana Rito presented the results of the 6th round of COSI Portugal (2022), the child nutrition surveillance system integrated into the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) study by the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

In addition to monitoring the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, the 6th round of the COSI study exceptionally included a study (COSI/COVID-19) to assess the impact of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic on the nutritional status and lifestyle behaviours of schoolchildren.

To access the report and factsheet, click HERE.

The 30th European Congress on Obesity (ECO), EASO’s annual scientific congress, took place between 17 and 20 May in Dublin (Ireland).

This congress featured a diverse scientific programme in the areas of research, obesity prevention, presentations, courses and networking opportunities.

For this event, the CEIDSS team presented a scientific poster on the work carried out by the CO-CREATE project in Portugal: “Mental health as a driver of obesity: perpectives from CO-CREATE Portuguese Youth”.

In addition, the factsheet of the COSI-COVID study “Nutrition, physical activity, well-being and COVID-19 – Results from 13 countries participating in round 6 of the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative study” was launched. This study was led by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Childhood Nutrition and Obesity (INSA) in Portugal.

The XXII edition of the Food and Nutrition Congress, organised by the Portuguese Nutrition Association (APN), took place in Alfândega do Porto on 11 and 12 May.

CEIDSS had the opportunity to present two posters on the work carried out as part of the Missão Continente School Programme – “Characterisation of the breakfast habits of Portuguese schoolchildren – Missão Continente School Programme 2021/2022” and the European CO-CREATE Project “Strategies for the engagement of youth in health-related activities in Portugal: the CO-CREATE Project”.

These posters were attended by trainee nutritionist Mariana Cabral and nutritionists and CEIDSS collaborators Inês Figueira and Fátima Martins.

The fourth meeting of the CO-CREATE consortium took place from 18 to 21 April in Wroclaw, Poland. This meeting featured productive discussions, an exchange of partner experiences, sessions on the tools developed and project results.

The project meeting was a fruitful scientific event, with plenary sessions and workshops, as well as a social programme with the consortium partners.

On 5 April, CEIDSS took part in the 12th Plenary Assembly of the Municipal Forum for Health Promotion (FCPS), promoted by Cascais City Council.

This Assembly, part of Health Week, was characterized by an operational and inter-group meeting between the different partners, where the current Action Plans were discussed.