Steno-conference puts NCD agenda in European perspective

Sir Michael Marmot, a world leading researcher on health inequity, gave a thought-provoking lecture at the recent European Public Health Association (EUPHA) conference in Copenhagen where he was invited to speak by the Steno Health Promotion Center.

By Philip Munch, 23 November 2011

”Read half an hour with your child every day – and it will be a more cost-effective health intervention than all the campaigns targeted towards the poor”, said Sir Michael Marmot

He spoke at the EUPHA pre-conference entitled: ”High-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases - a critical European perspective”. And he was indeed critical with regards to solutions that do not include a more equal distribution of ressources in societies: ”The NCD agenda will fail unless you address social inequities in health”, he said and continued: ”obesity is not determined by lack of exercise and poor diet, it’s determined by level of income.”

Sir Michael Marmot ended his speech by showing evidence from recent UK projects with young people from Birmingham and Swansea that showed a way forward. It is possible to create conditions where people have increased control over their lives and participate more in society.

Sir Michael Marmot served as chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health set up by the WHO in 2005. The commission produced the landmark report ”Closing the gap of a generation” and Sir Michael Marmot has now been asked by the WHO Regional Office Europe to conduct a European review on social determinants of health and the work is in progress.

WHO European prevention strategy
The person in charge of the NCDs and health promotion at the WHO Regional Office Europe, Dr Gauden Galea was the second key note speaker at the pre-conference and he presented the overall European strategy for the prevention of NCDs. The four cornerstones in the strategy are: 

1. Planning & Oversight (Including national plans and health information systems)
2. Health in all policies (including fiscal, marketing etc.)
3. Healthy settings (primarily schools and workplaces)
4. Secondary prevention (cardio-metabolic screening in primary care and early detection of cancer)
   

Dr. Gauden Galea stressed, that it will be around these four cornerstones that the office will work with the European member states to prevent NCDs including diabetes in the coming years.

The super-setting concept
The Steno Health Promotion Center is very much focused on healthy settings and Professor Bjarne Bruun Jensen, head of the center, presented some recent examples in his speech including the super-setting concept developed at Steno. The concept will be tested in a large prevention project on the island of Bornholm funded by the Nordea Foundation. The project targets families with children and integrates interventions in schools, super markets, local media and NGOs. The integrated approach of different settings in a well-defined area constitutes the super-setting.

”Schools and families with children are key to future health. We need to support the child as early as possible as well as educate the coming mothers and fathers of the next generation, said professor Bjarne Bruun Jensen”.

The conference was organised by the Steno Health Promotion Center in cooperation with the Copenhagen School of Global Health at Copenhagen University and took place 10. November in connection with the EUPHA conference (10-12. November).

Learn more:
Closing the gap of a generation 
About the conference