Tuesday, May 8, 2007

The HOPE project is about to really start


On June 4 and 5 the HOPE project kick off meeting will be. HOPE stands for Health promotion through Obesity Prevantion across Europe. HOPE is financed by the Commission of the European Community in its 6th framework programme.

HOPE focuses on overweight and obesity as one of the main determinants
of loss of healthy life years and of health disparities in Europe. In particular, it focuses on
expanding understanding of the key lifestyle factors nutrition and physical activity,
which are the major proximal determinants of overweight and obesity. It aims at identifying
(I) socio-economic and environmental determinants of these behaviours; and (II)
effective intervention settings and approaches to address these determinants aiming at
obesity prevention and reductions in inequalities in obesity-related health risks.

I am lucky enough to act as coordinator of the HOPE project, assisted by Drs. Maurcio Anedano Pabon and Willemieke Kroeze, and in close collaboration with the International Obesity Task Force/ International Association of the Stucy of Obesity, Professor Philip James and Dr Tim Lobstein.

In HOPE researchers from a number of excellent institutes join forces and HOPE will create a network-of-networks of all obesity prevention projects in Europe to better inform the European community about ways to tackle the obesity epidemic.

The HOPE website will be launched soon.

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