MEMBERS WORKSHOP: MEETING PEERS AND SHARING EXPERIENCES

The members’ workshops are designed to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and allow participants to apply these learnings on a national level to their local society or foundation. Building on the work of others and exploiting opportunities, as well as communicating their own activities has led to the successful implementation of many initiatives including campaigns such as World Heart Day and Go Red for Women, on a global level. The latest workshop took place during the World Congress of Cardiology on 19 May and focused on: Tobacco and Youth and Go Red for Women.   

Youth advocates: the future of tobacco control

Dr Eduardo Bianco, from The Research Centre of the Tobacco Epidemic (CIET) Uruguay opened this session by presenting worldwide statistics on smoking prevalence among teenagers:  

• 14% of 13–15 year old teens are smokers
• 80% of smokers begin to smoke when they are aged under 18 yrs
• 30-50% of those who experiment get hooked
• Over 90% of tobacco users fill the criteria to be considered as tobacco dependents
• Half of them will die because of a tobacco related disease

The strategies that work to protect youth include de-normalising the tobacco industry, increasing tobacco prices, banning advertising, smoke-free environments and involving youth in counteractions. Case studies of the implementation of such youth strategies in Argentina and Uruguay were presented along with the results of preliminary interventions. Among the youth advocates who attended the meeting,   Luis Cuesta from Columbia demonstrated how he reaches out to the community by performing a song on tobacco.

Key workshop learnings: Youth and Tobacco

Evidence has shown that educational programmes aimed at youth have limited effectiveness when compared to banning advertising, raising taxes and smoke-free legislation. Youth-to-youth communication is essential to the success of advocacy among youth, e.g. anti-tobacco campaigns and successful initiatives are based on structured networks that remain even after individual youth have ‘grown up’ and moved on. Using the media to impact on public opinion and consequently public policy is an important factor in determining change.

Go Red for Women: progress made since its launch in 2005

In 2005, the World Heart Federation launched a partnership with the American Heart Association to develop their Go Red for Women campaign internationally. The majority of women are unaware of their cardiovascular disease risk and this campaign aims to change that by reaching out to women, through its member organizations.

To date 40 national members expressed an interest in joining the Go Red for Women campaign of which 21 have reported activity. Catherine Zeta-Jones gave her support to the campaign by appearing in advertisements for the international sponsor Elizabeth Arden. A viral communication was also launched on Valentine’s day to further raise awareness and a Health-Care Professionals (HCP) Toolkit was released on International Women’s Day. This advocacy pack is available to members through the website and is presented in a PowerPoint format. It contains WHO global and regional data on cardiovascular disease and can be used as a basis for presentations aimed at general public, health-care professionals, press and policymakers. Information can be used in whole or in parts, according to needs.  Space provided for member organization’s logo on each page.

Case studies from our members

During the workshop three of our member organizations presented their activities: Lyn Roberts (CEO of the National Heart Foundation of Australia and World Heart Federation Vice President), Monica Acevedo (Chilean Society of Cardiology) and Ho Sun Yee (Singapore Heart Foundation). Our members expressed a particular interest in the results from population surveys.

• In Australia  97% of Australians unaware that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women and only 8% of women realise cardiovascular disease is the greatest killer of women, most think that it is breast cancer
• In Chile 9 women die daily of chronic heart disease and 11 women die of cardiovascular disease
• In Singapore only 8% of women were aware that heart disease and stroke is their leading cause of death, 59% thought it was cancer and breast cancer

Singapore has made the survey methodology available to nine member organizations in the Asia-Pacific region. However, members from other countries who attended the workshop requested that the World Heart Federation develop a baseline survey which they could use to measure awareness in their countries and to track public perceptions over time. 

The presentations from this workshop are available to members through the World Heart Federation website.