Browsing by Author "Williams, J."
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Improving data on overweight, obesity and undernutrition among children under the age of 5 years in the WHO European RegionPublication . Wickramasinghe, K.; Heinen, M.; Buoncristiano, M.; Pudule, I.; Rito, Ana; Spinelli, A.; Ahrens, W.; Borghi, E.; Flores-Urrutia, K.; McColl, K.; Sassi, F.; Williams, J.; Rakovac, I.Introduction: It is important for countries to be able to examine their progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals on malnutrition. Unfortunately, in the WHO European Region, there is limited and sparse crosssectional anthropometric measured data at national level from children under five years of age. The WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases in collaboration with WHO Headquarters and as part of its participation in the European Union funded project “Science Technology Obesity Policy” (STOP), is exploring to address these data gaps. Therefore, in October 2022, the WHO Regional Office for Europe convened an expert meeting to discuss the current overview of data availability, data collection, and next steps to move forward. Methods: Key stakeholders working in the areas related to childhood obesity surveillance were invited to this meeting to discuss and explore the availability of data, the feasibility, generalisability and practicality of anthropometric data collection in children under five and suggest next steps to move forward. Results: Addressing the challenge of childhood obesity in Europe was discussed, as well as the importance of anthropometric data on children under five years of age. Results of a survey from 31 European countries on the availability of anthropometric data in this age group were presented, focusing on data available from “routine health checks”. Future work is needed to identify the feasibility of accessing this data for surveillance and research purposes. Three Member States, namely Italy, Portugal and Latvia, presented their experience in data collection and perspectives on how to improve data on children under five. Discussions took place on the feasibility, generalisability and practicality of anthropometric data collection, and expected challenges and solutions. It was discussed that further explorations need to be done to harmonize joint data collection efforts coming from different sources within national health information systems. Conclusion: We concluded that it is important to move on from the idea of a perfect, ideal data source. All data sources — and the possibility of combining data from different sources — should be explored. Latvia has demonstrated the feasibility of a kindergarten-based survey and several countries have indicated willingness to participate in similar surveys. Other data sources should be further explored — it is important to gather enough information from routine data sources to be able to use and interpret these data (and combine them with other data). This is particularly important because kindergarten-based data will reach the older children in the under-five age group, while there tends to be higher coverage of younger children through routine data from paediatric systems.
- Obesity dialogues – fostering policy options in Western Balkans and Central AsiaPublication . Spiroksi, I.; Abdrakhmanova, S.; Rito, Ana; Racovak, I.; Heinem, M.; Whiting, S.; Williams, J.; Wickramasinghe, K.Introduction: Obesity has been identified as a serious public health challenge globally and a major determinant of premature death and disability in the WHO European Region. More than 50% of adults and one in three children around the Region are living with overweight or obesity, with prevalence close to 70% in several countries. In 2022, The WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD office) organized two policy dialogues with the objectives to highlight the obesity situation, present possible interventions and prioritize policy actions to tackle this public health issue in the regions of Western Balkans and Central Asia. Methods: Two key professionals and decision makers per country/territory were invited to discuss the current state as well as challenges and opportunities related to prevention and management of obesity in Skopje, North Macedonia (MKD) for the Western Balkans countries/territory and in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) for the Central Asian countries. Dialogues were kindly supported by the Ministries of Health of the host countries with personal presence of the Ministers of Health and in MKD with the presence of the First Lady of the country. Results: WHO’s representatives presented on the burden of obesity in the countries of the Region by providing comprehensive data collected by the NCD Office through regular surveillance, as well as a summary of possible multisectoral actions listed in the recently published WHO European Obesity Report and other documents like the “Best Buys” to tackle NCDs. Country experiences were shared on implementing policies to reduce obesity burden like the public health tax in Hungary and the SSB tax and food marketing regulation in Portugal and also double duty actions to address the burden of both undernutrition and obesity, particularly important in the Central Asian countries. Participating countries, as final exercise of the one-day event, were asked to prioritize actions, according to the national context, and to assess the feasibility of its implementation over the short, medium, and long term. Conclusions: Participating countries at both events found that this activity was a novelty in their national approaches to tackle obesity in Western Balkans and the double burden of obesity and malnutrition in Central Asia and increased their knowledge on a whole-of government multicomponent approach to address obesity. Both the representatives of the European Region of the WHO and the participating countries concluded that dialogues among stakeholders at national level, as initiated at these meetings, should be stimulated, and executed if any success in tackling rising trends of obesity should be expected. Follow up on countries’ priorities should be performed to assess the progress and to support experts and policy makers in evidence-informed decision making for obesity.