Lifestyle of School Children

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among school children is increasing dramatically. Obesity is multifactorial and depends on lifestyle as well as genetic components

Healthy nutrition habits are set young. This is why the World Heart Federation has decided to put the spotlight on the children programmes run by its members that focus on healthy lifestyles, in an effort to spread good practices and inspire other members that could wish to put the same kind of projects in place.

The project on children healthy lifestyles started in 2008 when the World Heart Federation partnered with the Medtronic Foundation and the UEFA to start work on this area.

The initial stage of the project consisted in gathering information on effective programmes among the World Heart Federation members information on effective programmes among its members to get a broad picture of the situation. Some members kindly provided us with information about their programmes. This information is contained in the following report.

Following this initial phase, the World Heart Federation started to work on the organization of a workshop which took place in June 2009. Members, including some that had participated in the initial report, were able to meet and exchange best practices about children healthy lifestyles programmes.

The project is now entering its third phase with the production of a toolkit that will be accessible to all members.

• Project phase 1 : Initial Report
• Project phase 2 : Workshop and presentations (members-only access)
• Project phase 3 : Toolkit production ongoing (available end 2009-early 2010)

Members, please enter your login details in the box on the right column to have access to the links above.