Events
III Forum of Obesity Prevention Projects
The III Forum of Obesity Prevention Projects was held on the 18th and 19th of June 2010 in the Egas Moniz Building of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL). This Forum is jointly organized by the FMUL Institute of Advanced Training (IFA) and the General Directorate of Health Platform Against Obesity.
The Forum is a part of the PhD and Masters Course in Metabolic Diseases and Dietary Behaviour, and was presided over by the Director of the Faculty, Professor Fernandes e Fernandes, by Professor Constantino Sakellarides, President of the Scientific Council of the National School of Public Health and by Professor Isabel do Carmo, President of the Scientific Council of the Platform Against Obesity.
On the 18th of June two international conferences were held. The first was given by Professor Deborah Cohen, and was entitled How the environment causes obesity and what we can do about it. Professor Deborah Cohen is a researcher at the Rand Corporation in the USA. Her conference was based on a review of the studies that show the automatic perspective of our dietary choices, how much they are conditioned by environmental stimuli and the reduction of the cognitive fraction in these choices. The automatic way we choose the densest in energy (sweets and fatty foods) and those close to us is inscribed within our DNA, so the hipocaloric regime, or even the “healthy diet” are struggles against DNA. Only an environmental alteration, particularly in agro-industry, may modify the tendency towards obesity in developed societies.
The second conference was given by Professor Lauren Lissner, from the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden, and related the Swedish experience in the prevention of child obesity. She showed the decline of child obesity in the female sex and also showed the comparison between the neighbourhoods with low and high incomes in Sweden, with the former ones having a prevalence of child obesity being equal to Portugal. Relating this with the measures taken for fighting child obesity, she concluded that these measures can be efficient in other countries.
On the first day several projects were presented:
• The School Fruit Project, with the distribution of fruit to all pupils from the 5th Grade on – a partnership agreement between the Ministry of Education and the General Directorate of Health (DGS) – presented by Dr. Rui de Lima.
• The Project for Collaboration with Municipal Councils, presented by Professor Ana Rito, of the INSA, which involves schools and several municipal councils, with ongoing programmes for intervention.
• The SPARE Project (System of Planning and Assessment of School Meals) presented by Professor Ada Rocha of the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences of the University of Oporto.
• The organization of Groups of Patients, namely the AFAGO and ECO groups from the Serious Obesity Consultation Unit of the Santa Maria Hospital, with the collaboration of the psychologists Maria João Brito and Maria João Fagundes, and also Dr. Sandra Martins, from the Faculty of Human Motricity of the Lusófona University. The patients were present and presented their accounts.
On Saturday the 19th of June 2010, Professor Constantino Sakellarides and Professor A. Vaz Carneiro presided over the conference by Professor Kenneth Mandl, from the Harvard Medical School in the USA, which was entitled Diabetes, personal health systems and online social networks. After this conference Professor C. Sakellarides presented the project Personal Health information systems and Health literacy – a Portuguese experience, and Dr. Liliana Laranjo presented the communication New instruments for health literacy and patients empowerment in type 2 diabetes mellitus. This dealt with using computer networks for patients with diabetes to individually control their illness, providing them with programmes that allow them to follow their own evolution.
In the second part of the morning the information about obesity was discussed, with Professor Villaverde Cabral, Professor Pedro Moura Ferreira and Dr. Osvaldo Santos presenting the project on the information relative to obesity set within the Harvard/Portugal Programme.
Posters were also shown in the outer areas with contents referring to this field.
The organizing committee was made up of: Professor Isabel do Carmo (FMUL), Dr. Antónia Ferreira (IFA) and Dr. Paula Câmara (PhD student).
Isabel do Carmo
Director of the Endocrinology Service
secretariadoheid@gmail.com
The Forum is a part of the PhD and Masters Course in Metabolic Diseases and Dietary Behaviour, and was presided over by the Director of the Faculty, Professor Fernandes e Fernandes, by Professor Constantino Sakellarides, President of the Scientific Council of the National School of Public Health and by Professor Isabel do Carmo, President of the Scientific Council of the Platform Against Obesity.
On the 18th of June two international conferences were held. The first was given by Professor Deborah Cohen, and was entitled How the environment causes obesity and what we can do about it. Professor Deborah Cohen is a researcher at the Rand Corporation in the USA. Her conference was based on a review of the studies that show the automatic perspective of our dietary choices, how much they are conditioned by environmental stimuli and the reduction of the cognitive fraction in these choices. The automatic way we choose the densest in energy (sweets and fatty foods) and those close to us is inscribed within our DNA, so the hipocaloric regime, or even the “healthy diet” are struggles against DNA. Only an environmental alteration, particularly in agro-industry, may modify the tendency towards obesity in developed societies.
The second conference was given by Professor Lauren Lissner, from the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden, and related the Swedish experience in the prevention of child obesity. She showed the decline of child obesity in the female sex and also showed the comparison between the neighbourhoods with low and high incomes in Sweden, with the former ones having a prevalence of child obesity being equal to Portugal. Relating this with the measures taken for fighting child obesity, she concluded that these measures can be efficient in other countries.
On the first day several projects were presented:
• The School Fruit Project, with the distribution of fruit to all pupils from the 5th Grade on – a partnership agreement between the Ministry of Education and the General Directorate of Health (DGS) – presented by Dr. Rui de Lima.
• The Project for Collaboration with Municipal Councils, presented by Professor Ana Rito, of the INSA, which involves schools and several municipal councils, with ongoing programmes for intervention.
• The SPARE Project (System of Planning and Assessment of School Meals) presented by Professor Ada Rocha of the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences of the University of Oporto.
• The organization of Groups of Patients, namely the AFAGO and ECO groups from the Serious Obesity Consultation Unit of the Santa Maria Hospital, with the collaboration of the psychologists Maria João Brito and Maria João Fagundes, and also Dr. Sandra Martins, from the Faculty of Human Motricity of the Lusófona University. The patients were present and presented their accounts.
On Saturday the 19th of June 2010, Professor Constantino Sakellarides and Professor A. Vaz Carneiro presided over the conference by Professor Kenneth Mandl, from the Harvard Medical School in the USA, which was entitled Diabetes, personal health systems and online social networks. After this conference Professor C. Sakellarides presented the project Personal Health information systems and Health literacy – a Portuguese experience, and Dr. Liliana Laranjo presented the communication New instruments for health literacy and patients empowerment in type 2 diabetes mellitus. This dealt with using computer networks for patients with diabetes to individually control their illness, providing them with programmes that allow them to follow their own evolution.
In the second part of the morning the information about obesity was discussed, with Professor Villaverde Cabral, Professor Pedro Moura Ferreira and Dr. Osvaldo Santos presenting the project on the information relative to obesity set within the Harvard/Portugal Programme.
Posters were also shown in the outer areas with contents referring to this field.
The organizing committee was made up of: Professor Isabel do Carmo (FMUL), Dr. Antónia Ferreira (IFA) and Dr. Paula Câmara (PhD student).
Isabel do Carmo
Director of the Endocrinology Service
secretariadoheid@gmail.com