The Learning Platform for Preventing CHILDHOOD OBESITY in Europe

Workpackage 4
Mapping exercise, needs analysis and
gap analysis for obesity prevention tools
Status: fnal version, April 2014
COLOPHON
Title
Report HEPCOM needs analysis
HEPCOM mapping exercise, needs analysis and gap analysis for obesity prevention tools
Authors
Dietmar Goelitz
1

Peter Paulus
2

Janine Vervoordeldonk
3

Henriette Hansen
4

Goof Buijs
5

Acknowledgements
M.S. Carlsson (Aarhus University, Denmark), V. Simovska (Aarhus University, Denmark), S.V.
Vevatne (Bergen University College, Norway), N.G. Viig (Bergen University College, Norway),
C. Mont Castro (Business Solutions Europa, Belgium), G. Petito (Business Solutions Europa,
Belgium), J. Pavlic (Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Croatia), I. Pejnovi Franeli
(Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Croatia), S. Musi Milanovi (Croatian National
Institute of Public Health, Croatia), E. Bada (Institute of Child Health, Greece), K. Kapetaniou
(Institute of Child Health, Greece), A. Spinelli (National Institute of Health, Italy), V. Possenti
(National Institute of Health, Italy), E. Flaschberger (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Health
Promotion Research, Austria), L. Gugglberger, (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Health Promotion
Research, Austria), R.Felder-Puig (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Health Promotion Research,
Austria), A. Jociute (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania), G. Petronyte (Mykolas Romeris
University, Lithuania), C. Kelly (National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland), M. Molcho
(National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland), J. Aagaard-Hansen (Steno Diabetes
Centre Ltd., Denmark), M.L.Bruselius (Steno Diabetes Centre Ltd., Denmark), B. van der
Zanden (euPrevent EMR, the Netherlands), G.S. Carvalho (University of Minho, Portugal),
R.B. Tracana (University of Minho, Portugal), C. Simar (University Blaise Pasal
Clermont-Ferrand 2, France), D. Jourdan (University Blaise Pasal Clermont-Ferrand 2, France),
E. Darlington (University Blaise Pasal Clermont-Ferrand 2, France), A. Schultz (University
College Syddenmark, Denmark), U. Pedersen (University Blaise Pasal Clermont-Ferrand 2,
France), C. Williams (University of Brighton, UK), N.S. Sherriff (University of Brighton, UK),
K. Tossavainen (University of Eastern Finland, Finland), M. Sormunen (University of Eastern
Finland, Finland)
Publication date
April 2014
This report can be downloaded for free from the HEPCOM website: www.hepcom.eu
HEPCOM is supported by the European Unions Health Programme (2008-2013). The views
expressed are purely the authors own and do not refect the views of the European
Commission
CBO, 2014. No part of this publication may be reproduced, either in folio of digital form,
without written permission. Requests concerning the reproduction of images or text should
be addressed to: CBO P.O. Box 20064 3502 LB Utrecht The Netherlands e-mail:
info@cbo.nl
1
Leuphana University, Lneburg, Germany
2
ibid
3
CBO, Utrecht, the Netherlands
4
South Denmark European Offce, Brussels, Belgium
5
CBO, Utrecht, the Netherlands
The Learning Platform for Preventing CHILDHOOD OBESITY in Europe
Workpackage 4
Mapping exercise, needs analysis and
gap analysis for obesity prevention tools
Status: fnal version, April 2014
4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 5
2 Description and scope, aim and methods ........................................................................... 7
3 Needs analysis for tools .................................................................................................... 13
3.1 What tools do local communities apply and need? .................................................. 13
3.2 Recommendations from local communities to the learning platform ...................... 20
3.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 21
4 Mapping exercise: Description of tools for health promotion and prevention of
overweight ................................................................................................................................ 22
4.1 Summary of identified tools in mapped projects ..................................................... 23
4.2 Usability of the identified tools from all mapped projects for the communities
needs and the HEPCOM learning platform .......................................................................... 27
5 Gap analysis and consequences for the HEPCOM learning platform ............................. 29
6 Appendix 1: Mapping of European level projects ........................................................... 31
6.1 SHAPE UP ............................................................................................................... 31
6.2 Young Minds ............................................................................................................ 40
6.3 Healthy Region ......................................................................................................... 43
6.4 PoHeFa ..................................................................................................................... 45
6.5 Healthy Children ...................................................................................................... 48
6.6 HEPS ........................................................................................................................ 52
6.7 Boys and Girls .......................................................................................................... 58
6.8 Active ....................................................................................................................... 62
6.9 IDEFICS ................................................................................................................... 65
6.10 I.Family .................................................................................................................... 68
6.11 Energy ...................................................................................................................... 70
6.12 Spotlight ................................................................................................................... 73
6.13 Epode ........................................................................................................................ 76
6.14 GRADIENT ............................................................................................................. 81
6.15 Drivers ...................................................................................................................... 83
6.16 HCSC ....................................................................................................................... 87
6.17 Equity Channel ......................................................................................................... 89
6.18 IMAGE ..................................................................................................................... 93
6.19 TEENAGE ............................................................................................................... 97
6.20 European Portal for action in Health Inequalities .................................................. 100
6.21 Equity Channel ....................................................................................................... 103
6.22 IMPALA ................................................................................................................. 107
6.23 Healthy Eco Life .................................................................................................... 110
6.24 PERISCOPE ........................................................................................................... 112
6.25 EATWELL ............................................................................................................. 115
6.26 RICHIE ................................................................................................................... 118
6.27 MOVE .................................................................................................................... 120
6.28 INFORM ................................................................................................................ 123
6.29 HELENA ................................................................................................................ 126
6.30 HABEAT ................................................................................................................ 128
6.31 Garden Project ........................................................................................................ 132
Appendix 2: Needs analysis interview template .................................................................... 134


5


1 SUMMARY
The aim of this workpackage is to make a mapping exercise, as well as a needs and gap
analysis of tools used in obesity prevention targeted at children and young people in local
communities and schools. Currently applied tools and needs for tools were identified by
interviewing stakeholders from 45 European communities in the 15 participating
countries involved in the HEPCOM project.

The stakeholders included policy makers, decision makers, administrative staff and
practitioners working on the community level. The employed tools were then
systematized and categorized by a management cycle which is derived from the
commonly used public health action cycle. Subsequently, we identified existing tools at
the community level that could be relevant in health promotion for obesity prevention.
This was accomplished through an extensive mapping analysis of 32 EU-funded projects.

A gap analysis then built upon these findings in the previous analyses to reveal. The gap
analysis revealed existing gaps for the needs of community health promotion and obesity
prevention that are not met by existing tools. Overall, the analyses revealed that a wide
variety of different tools are applied in the participating communities. The community
partners expressed a need for these tools. At the same time, the individual tools were
generally reported as being needed only by a small number of the community partners.
The tools they asked for reflect typical problems specific communities have concerning
health promotion and obesity prevention (including financial and cultural needs, balance
between autonomy and regulation).

Summarizing the recommendations of the community partners concerning a learning
platform on the internet, they expressed a need for an easy to use platform with a
knowledge data base. They are interested in good practices that can be adapted to their
local community needs. They are also looking for networking possibilities. We therefore
conclude that the HEPCOM community partners intend to work actively with the online
learning platform.

An additional analysis revealed that the following tools are among the most needed:
1. Specific evaluation tools: tools that are tailored to the particular needs in a
community or generic tools which can be adapted to meet local needs
2. A good practice database: Models of good practice that show practice-based
evidence
3. Tools that assist in seeking resources (finances, time or staff): tools that help to
identify and get support
4. Tools that help develop common goals among partners: tools that help to create a
shared vision and general aims in a consortium of partners from different
background on a community level
5. Tools for project management: tools that help to make detailed planning or
checklist of steps for interventions
6. Tools that help to develop cross-regional conceptual frameworks on the political
level: tools to create a public management framework on health promotion and
obesity prevention.
7. Tools for active involvement of parents, children and adolescents: tools that help
initiate a participatory approach in health promotion and obesity prevention.

The mapping exercise on ongoing and completed EU funded projects that offer tools on
health promotion used in obesity prevention show that a gap exists concerning the
availability of the tools in some of the 13 country languages that are used within the
HEPCOM project. To increase access to tools in a range of languages, it is recommended
to link some selected national projects on the HEPCOM website.

6

Another gap was found with regard to databases and special evaluation tools.

We recommend to structure the HEPCOM online learning platform like a toolbox which
can help the partners in the 45 HEPCOM communities to choose tools that are most likely
to meet their diverse and specific needs.
HEPCOM partners are recommended to refer the HEPCOM approach in the following EU
projects: SHAPE UP, IMAGE and HEPS.
These projects use all-inclusive approaches to healthy communities.

The HEPCOM learning platform should include a search function that helps identify tools
for the communities specific needs. In addition, a forum-like data base with good
practices should be included.

7


2 DESCRIPTION AND SCOPE, AIM AND METHODS
According to the European Commission, 22 million children in the EU are considered
overweight or obese and this number is still increasing
6
. Data indicates that overweight
and obesity is more common in boys than in girls and that there is a social gradient, with
children from lower socio-economic group at greater risk. Obese young people are at
higher risk for developing serious health problems like poor glucose tolerance,
hyperinsulinemia, pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and asthma. Overweight
and obesity in young people that persists into adulthood, is associated with morbidity and
increased risk of premature mortality, especially from coronary heart disease, arterio-
sclerosis and certain types of cancer.

There are a wide range of behavioural, genetic, cultural, environmental and biological
variables that act both independently and together to contribute to the development of
overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Given this fact, understanding the
underlying factors, correlations and mechanisms whereby children and young people
become overweight or obese is challenging. The prevalent epidemics or obesogenic
environments which place childrens physical and mental health at risk, may be seen as a
key driver in the overweight epidemic. Children, especially girls, who grow up in deprived
communities, e.g. with an abundance of cheap, nutritionally poor, high caloric foods and
reduced opportunities to be physically active, are particularly vulnerable; they may
experience body judgementalism by the media and peers.

These factors are closely linked with environmental, social and economic deprivation. The
causes and the underlying complex aetiology of obesity as well as the likelihood that
unhealthy eating and physical activity habits developed in early childhood will lead to
adverse effects in later life, has encouraged further support for effective and sustainable
health promotion and prevention measures. These measures should start as early as
possible in childhood, before health attitudes and behaviors have been established.

Therefore, measures in the area of health promotion and obesity prevention are needed
and these measures should take place in childrens and young peoples primary living
environments.
The school setting together with the family forms the centre of childrens and
adolescents living environments, for which already a considerable number of
programmes on healthy eating and physical activity have been developed and
implemented. The complex aetiology requires an integrated approach to programmes or
initiatives which make use of multi-component multilevel measures interventions that
address individual measures (e.g., knowledge, attitudes, and motivation) and
environmental measures (e.g., creating facilities on school or community level that
promote physical activity). Research indicates strong evidence that
individual/environmental focused interventions have a positive effect, e.g. on dietary
behaviour (fruit and vegetable intake), in children.

Finally, it is important to recognize the health divide. Research reveals that children and
young people with socially disadvantaged backgrounds or children from certain
immigrant backgrounds have a higher risk of being overweight or obese and also have
disadvantaged positions in other domains of their lives. Poor health outcomes are found
to be significantly associated with poor results at school, and socio-economic
disadvantages have a significant impact both on health and educational outcomes
7
.


6
http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/97996_en.html
7
Pucher, K.K., Boot, N.M.W.M. & Vries, N.K. de (2013). Systematic review: School health promotion
interventions targeting physical activity and nutrition can improve academic performance in primary- and
middle school children. Health Education, 113(5), 372-391.
8

Preventing childhood obesity and raising educational standards, particularly for
disadvantaged children, have become an urgent public health and education challenge. It
is not only an issue of health disparities, but also a social and educational issue. These
factors create a vicious circle for overweight and obese children and adolescents, which
can only be targeted by a more fundamental and integrated approach, focusing on the
communities where children and young people live. To prevent obesity in children and
young people, it is important to gain knowledge of these multilevel factors and to learn
about relevant interventions that have proven to be effective.

Defining community-based initiatives

Community-based initiatives (CBIs) can be a powerful approach to combat childhood and
adolescent obesity especially when combined with other setting-based approaches in the
community. A CBI generally consists of a combination of strategies implemented at a
local level that target the environment or the communitys capacity (instruments) or
individuals directly (activities). CBIs are considered as good practice in obesity
prevention policies, since obesity cannot be solved solely by an individual approach, but
instead require a multi-sectoral response to create a healthy environment. This
conceptualization of CBI is developed from the definition of WHO which states that CBIs
adopt a holistic approach to health paying equal significance to the physical, mental,
social and spiritual well-being of individuals. CBI programmes represent integrated
bottom up socioeconomic development models that rely on full community ownership and
intersectoral collaboration
8
.
The research in the HEPCOM project consists of three main activities:

1. A needs analysis, focusing on what local communities need in relation to tools,
methods and strategies in order to work more strategically and systematically on
promoting healthy eating and physical activity among children and young people.
This resulted in an overview of the target groups knowledge, structural and
networking needed to support them in their health promotion efforts around
obesity. 45 local communities were identified within participating 15 EU member
states, and at least 1/3 are defined as deprived areas. The identified local
communities provided input to the research and will participate in carrying out the
pilot projects using the HEPCOM online learning platform.

2. A mapping exercise, which gathered good practice tools from completed and
ongoing Public Health Programme and other European projects, working
specifically with local communities and schools. The mapping exercise resulted in
an overview of the patterns of success factors or barriers of interventions on
community level. Relevant information was gathered about a) the strategic focus
of the projects and the context in which they operate (social, cultural or political)
b) the tools and methods they propose (strategic, planning or implementation
level), c) the level of evidence, d) the evaluation methods and e) the quality
assurance schemes.

3. A GAP analysis revealed the differences between what is identified as needed by
those working in health promotion around obesity, and already existing resources
and tools from Public Health Programmes and other European projects. That is,
existing resources were identified that could be upscaled and implemented
throughout Europe, and what areas have not yet been covered by completed and
ongoing Public Health Programme and other European projects, and are therefore
still missing.


8
(www.emro.who.int/cbi/cbi_introduction.htm).

9

Definition of tools and their usefulness for CBIs

In the HEPCOM project, we define tools as methods, guidelines, conceptual frameworks
and templates that local communities apply in order to plan and structure their health
promoting activities targeting children and young people. The general framework used in
HEPCOM is the health action cycle.
9
.

The health action cycle proposes a continuous process of improvement for prevention
measures and is associated with a more general management cycle. In the HEPCOM
project, tools are categorized into five phases of the following management cycle:

1 Policy development: the decision process by which individuals, groups or
institutions establish policies pertaining to plans, programmes or
procedures.
2 Strategic planning: strategic planning is a well planned effort to produce
fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an
organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future.
3 Action planning: the development of an action plan which specifies the
actions needed to address each of the above mentioned issues and to
reach each of the associated goals, determine who will complete each
action and according to which timeline.
4 Implementation of interventions / health promoting activities:
implementation involves all the steps needed to put prevention and health
promotion interventions into place and make them available to the target
group(s).
5 Evaluation of interventions / health promoting activities: evaluation
includes a set of tools that are used to measure the effectiveness of
preventive or health promoting measures

This concrete operationalisation of the management cycle is taken from the PoHeFa
project
10
. It is similar to the model of a process based quality management system but
has an additional phase for action planning. The project management cycle for the
HEPCOM project is described in Figure 1 below.

9
See National Academy of Science/Institute of Medicine, The Future of Public Health, Washington DC 1988 that
is usable for many countries, see Rosenbrock R, Public Health als Soziale Innovation, Das Gesundheitswesen,
Bd. 57, 3 (1995), S. 140-144;
Rosenbrock R/Gerlinger T, Gesundheitspolitik. Eine systematische Einfhrung, 2. Aufl., Bern 2006
10
see http://pohefa.eu/Portals/27/The%20PoHeFa%20Method_final.pdf
10



Figure 1: Management cycle
source: PoHeFa project / ISO 9001:2008














Methods
The research in the HEPCOM project consists of three main activities:

1. A needs analysis, focusing on what local communities need in relation to tools,
methods and strategies in order to work more strategically and systematically on
promoting healthy eating and physical activity among children and young people. This
resulted in an overview of the target groups knowledge, structural and networking
needed to support them in their health promotion efforts around obesity. 45 local
communities were identified within participating 15 EU member states, and at least 1/3
are defined as deprived areas. The identified local communities provided input to the
research and will participate in carrying out the pilot projects using the HEPCOM online
learning platform.

2. A mapping exercise, which gathered good practice tools from completed and
ongoing Public Health Programme and other European projects, working specifically with
local communities and schools. The mapping exercise resulted in an overview of the
patterns of success factors or barriers of interventions on community level. Relevant
information was gathered about a) the strategic focus of the projects and the context in
which they operate (social, cultural or political) b) the tools and methods they propose
(strategic, planning or implementation level), c) the level of evidence, d) the evaluation
methods and e) the quality assurance schemes.

3. A GAP analysis revealed the differences between what is identified as needed by
those working in health promotion around obesity, and already existing resources and
tools from Public Health Programmes and other European projects. That is, existing
resources were identified that could be upscaled and implemented throughout Europe,
and what areas have not yet been covered by completed and ongoing Public Health
Programme and other European projects, and are therefore still missing.

HEPCOM will be carried out in 45 local communities in 15 European countries (see table
1).


11



Table 1: Countries and communities participating in the HEPCOM project with
code numbers and typology
Country Community 1 Community 2 Community 3
Austria 1 Favoriten Vienna

2 Tulln

3 Brigittenau in Vienna
Belgium 4 Leopoldsburg
municipality
5 German speaking
community of Belgium
(min of Health)
Regional authority
6 Neerpelt
municipality
Croatia 7 Hum Na Sutli
district
8 Babina Greda
Municipality (village)
9 Rab
Municipality (city)
Denmark 10 Copenhagen 11 Snderborg 12 Vejle
France 13 Territoire Loire
district
14 Territoire Rhne
district
15 Territoire Allier
district
Finland 16 Kuopio, Kalevala
school
city
17 Kuopio, youth service

city
18 Kuopio, city council

city
Germany 19 Erkelenz
municipality
20 Hckelhoven
municipality
21 bach-Palenberg
municipality
Greece 22 Filothei-Psychiko
municipality
23 Kaisariani
municipality
24 Daphni
municipality
Ireland 25 Galway city centre
club, Gaelic Athletic
Association
city
26 Cork Healthy Cities
Forum

city
27 Galway Health
Services Executive (HSE)
Health Promotion Unit
district
Italy 28 Southern Naples
Local health unit
29 Centre Naples
Local health unit
30 Rome
Local health unit
Lithuania 31 Kaunas district
municipality
(representatives from
municipality, Educational
centre and school)
32 Klaipeda city
municipality
representatives from
municipality, Public
Health Bureau and
school)
33 Jurbarkas district
municipality
(representatives from
municipality, Youth
council and school)
Netherlands 34 GGD Zuid Limburg
region
35 Gemeente Brunssum
municipality
36 BS Langeberg
School
Norway 37 Bergen
School (kindergarten)
38 Lindaas
District (schools)
39 Hordaland
District (public health
unit)
Portugal 40 Cmara Municipal de
Braga
municipality
41 Cmara Municipal de
Esposende
municipality
42 Cmara Municipal de
Seia
municipality
United Kingdom 43 Brighton & Hove City
Council
44 Brighton & Hove
voluntary/community
sector service providers
45 Brighton & Hove
Further Education
colleges 16-19 year olds

HEPCOM started with a needs analysis in order to get an overview of the needs among
local communities and schools concerning interventions on reducing obesity among
children and young people. The needs analysis interviews were carried out by HEPCOM
partners from 15 countries in 45 local communities (of which at least 1/3 disadvantaged)
in Europe (see table 1). An interview format was provided to the partners. Interviews
(either individual of focusgroup interviews) were carried out on three levels:
policy/decision making, administrative level and practitioner level. Questions focused
on: tools already applied in the communities, tools and support needed, how should the
HEPCOM online learning platform look like, etc. This qualitative research is analysed and
summarised in section 3.

For the mapping exercise an update was made of EU wide community-based initiatives to
reduce childhood obesity, which provides tools and learning aspects from other projects.
For the mapping exercise a format was developed, including information on the
intervention, theme, target group, methods, evaluation and a description of available and
accessible tools (or deliverables) that have been developed in the project. In order to
collect all relevant interventions databases (eg. EC, WHO) were screened as well as
relevant stakeholders (EU networks etc.) and all HEPCOM partners were consulted. 31
12

projects have been described in this mapping exercise and were divided into three
categories. The first category contains all inclusive holistic projects that describe how to
carry out a community or school-based prevention process in a health action cycle
orientated way.The second category includes projects, which do not use a management
cycle for all phases but rather focus initially on the political level and give political
guidelines, recommendations and goals. The third category includes projects that mainly
offer implementation and evaluation tools. All important EU wide community-based
interventions have been described in the formats (see appendix 1).

Finally a GAP analyis was carried out to demonstrate potential missing links. Results on
the needs for tools and support were analysed combined with the results of the already
existing tools in Europe (the outcomes of the mapping exercise). Subsequently we
described where already existing tools from European projects can cover missing links
and where gaps still exist which need to be completed with new tools.


13


3 NEEDS ANALYSIS FOR TOOLS

Description of needs analysis interview and description of methodology
(typology of stakeholders, choosing of interview partners and communities)

The aim of the HEPCOM needs analysis is to learn which tools for health promotion and
obesity prevention are applied and which are needed in a sample of 45 selected
communities. The needs analysis interviews were carried out in 15 European countries, in
three communities per country. Stakeholders are different partners from communities
working for different kinds of institutions ranging from local policy representatives to
school teachers.

Interviewers were given written instructions on how to approach community partners and
for the interview
11
. The needs analysis focuses on the tools local authorities/stakeholders
use to plan, structure, implement and evaluate their health promoting activities on
promoting healthy eating and physical activity targeting children and young people. A
community representative could express needs for tools on the policy and decision
making level, the administrative level and the practitioners level.
The interviewed community partners were from different levels in the local community,
including the political-strategic, administrative and practitioner level. The respondents
were divided into the three following groups:
1. Policy makers and decision makers: politicians, managers and executive staff who
have the responsibility to create visions, missions, overall policies and strategies
for health promoting activities targeting children and young people.

2. Administrative staff: Civil servants working in public administration, health
services etc., who are planning the overall health promoting activities targeting
children and young people in the local community and who also make sure that
an overall evaluation of the activities is carried out.

3. Practitioners: staff who are employed by organisations that target citizens in the
community e.g. schools, health promoting centers, sports clubs, kindergartens
who have the responsibility to implement the activities.

The interviews were carried out in focus groups or individually with stakeholders from the
different levels. At least one interview was carried out in each of the three local HEPCOM
communities in the 15 European countries.

3.1 What tools do local communities apply and need?
The 15 HEPCOM partners who are responsible for organizing pilot projects in their own
country summarized the results of their needs analysis interviews in a template
12
. These
summaries are used for the following descriptions. The HEPCOM partners were asked to
give a summary of their impressions from the needs analysis interviews. The summaries
highlight the most prevalent needs and common problems from the perspective of the
interviewers.



11
see Appendix 3: Needs analysis interview template
12
see Appendix 3: Needs analysis interview template, part 4b
14

Needs and challenges
One of the most common problems for the communities is defining a common strategy
with internal and external partners. A typical example of this is the city of Kuopio in
Finland. A school in Kupio experiments with cooperation and developing multisectoral
work between the education and other sectors. In these cases, a tool for creating a
common goal and strategy would be helpful.
Another example is presented by the HEPCOM partner from Croatia. Their interviews
show that local partners are involved in many individual health promoting initiatives
which are performed by many different partners. By combining separate initiatives,
learning from each other and filling in each others gaps, much efficiency can be gained
and limited resources can be combined in order to make sustainable progress in health
promotion. There is a strong need for an integral and multilevel approach, as well as for
knowledge sharing concerning best practices.
Other important tools for communities are tools for needs analysis, participation,
empowerment and involving adolescents and parents in projects as well as tools for data
collection in these target groups, models of good practice and for standardization and
evaluation.
In some cases, there is a need for tools that help identifying financial resources. One
example comes from the HEPCOM partner in Greece currently experiencing a difficult
economical situation. In all three local communities in Greece, there seems to be a lack
of resources and of educated staff to run health promotion programmes locally using
sustainable and well-structured methods. The economic and social crisis in Greece offers
a challenge. There seems to be a need for tools for the empowerment / persuasion of
professionals in schools and in the community, who are struggling daily with the impact
of the economic crisis.
Another need expressed by the HEPCOM partner from Italy is a tool that helps to create a
more positive climate for health promotion. The Italian interviewers made clear that a
supportive climate or context for health promotion in Italy is still missing, so that health
promotion initiatives and actions are essentially addressed by the good will of people
working on it. In Italy, the National Health Care System does not include a specific
service for health promotion; therefore, most of the work in this area is not officially
recognized and there are no specifically allocated resources (human or economic). This
creates a difficult context for local health promotion and obesity prevention initiatives to
address the high prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity and ultimately creates an
obstacle to implement health promotion interventions. In some communities in Italy
there is a need to develop strategies for health promotion targeted at the immigrant
population with cultural adaptation concerning healthy eating and physical activity.
Facilitating factors
One facilitating factor for health promotion in the local community is a positive focus and
motivation of the staff. The HEPCOM partner from Norway describes some typical positive
expectations from their local partner communities. They are all eager to take part in the
HEPCOM project, in anticipating that the web based learning platform will become a good
and important tool for health promotion in their communities.
Another facilitating factor for health promotion in the local community is the existence of
a highly structured national resource for health promotion as illustrated by the HEPCOM
partner from England. In England an extensive obesity prevention programme has been
running for more than 10 years in various forms as governments have changed.
However, the national policy commitment to addressing obesity has been strong and has
led to the implementation of a national family-based programme and campaign on
healthy eating, activity and healthy living, Change4Life, which has been running for 4
years. Other activities include:

15

National Child Measurement Programme BMI measured in schools since 2006 of
every child aged 4-5 and 10-11 years old
Public Health England Obesity Knowledge and Intelligence team interactive data
sets /maps / profiles of local areas using data on children and adults
Detailed guidance on tackling obesity across the local community
Obesity Learning Centre platform hosted by the National Forum (formerly the
National Heart forum), a non-governmental organization, with case studies, new
reports, etc.
Services in England are organized through a market place commissioning process: the
council writes a specification for the service which is then put out to tender different
organizations submit bids to deliver the service (competitive tendering) and the council
chooses and then monitors delivery of the contract. Most services around promoting
healthy eating are provided by the not-for-profit /voluntary sector. These experiences are
relevant for the HEPCOM learning platform; it helps to have a clear brand and statement
about how the HEPCOM pilot is organized and funded.

In addition to the 45 qualitative interviews of the needs analysis, the sample of answers
was also analyzed for the frequency of tools mentioned. Tools that were categorized as
either applied or needed by the community partners were listed. Most of these tools are
needed by the community partners. The tools were then further categorized by dividing
these into the five phases of the management cycle (see Figure 1). These categories are
not meant to be mutually exclusive in this classification of tools. It means that some
tools can be classified into more than one category, but they were put in the most
comprehensive category for this analysis.
Overall, it can be stated that a variety of tools are mentioned by the community partners
who were interviewed. In total, 97 tools were identified: 13 were classified as policy and
decision tools; 30 as strategic planning tools; 17 as action planning tools; 25 as
implementation tools and 22 tools were classified as evaluation tools. The tools support
the process of health promotion and obesity prevention interventions.
This implies that ideally a health promotion measure:
- is based on national standards on the policy level;
- monitors indicators strategically on the strategic planning level;
- identifies a target-based risk group on the action planning level;
- provides information to the target group based on the recommendations for
healthy eating on the implementation level;
- has a national evaluation standard on the evaluation level that can be used to
assess and improve the success of the health promotion measure.

The table 2 below contains a list of the overall tools mentioned by the HEPCOM
community partners, and listed following the five phases of the management cycle.

Table 2: List of tools mentioned by HEPCOM community partners
Policy and decision making tools
Legislation and regulations
National / regional programme, law, health profile or curriculum
Policy development
Concepts and strategies
Scientific health model
Local city corporate plan
WHO Healthy cities framework
Health marketing strategy
Addressing social health inequalities
Positive approach to health
Networks and cooperation
Engagement with commercial sector (e.g. catering, food manufacture) (PPS)
16

City steering group for health issues
Cooperation with local health network
Presence of official community representative for partnership building
Activities
Interventions tackling obesogenic environment
Facilities/data
National level information center

Strategic planning tools
Strategies/policies
Local or institutional food policy
Obesity tackling strategy
Networking
University cooperation or scientific advisory board
School network
Common goal and / or cooperation with external partners
Principles
Participation and empowerment
User friendliness and economy of tools
Cross-disciplinary
Resources
Providing resources (economical, staff, time, infrastructure)
Engagement of all professionals in institution (e.g. school)
Resource assessment (e.g. financial, staff)
Data
Local obesity or health indicators database and / or monitoring
National level guidance or information material
Local or target group needs analysis
Statistics and database (general)
Evidence base for long term effects of interventions
Evidence based / evaluated intervention or guideline
Community or school health profile
School data base (academic success, absenteeism, available physical activities)
Activities
Anti stigmatization tool
Informational material
Analysis of cultural eating habits
Focus group
Guidelines/tools
Model for planning evaluation of aims
Health assessment tool
Guideline comparison for Europe database
Project management
Health promotion quality assessment tool
Benchmarking tool value for money
Literature review


Action planning tools
Strategies
School strategy and / or programme and / or curriculum
City / community / region strategy / programme / plan
Structured multi year plan
Databases

17

Good practice examples or database
Case study database
Planning steps
Data-based target group identification
Detailed planning or checklist of steps for intervention
Networks
Networking
Establishing of partnerships and / or cooperations
Training
Confidentiality and sensitivity training for practitioners
Guidance for creation of own tools
Inter-institutional training
Materials
Kick off documents
Checklists
Worksheets
Templates for documentation and activities / protocols
Creativity tool for creating new actions

Implementation tools
Activities/Materials/Interventions
Workshops
Health day or excursion or activity in
Training for case managers
Non obesity specific mental health programme
Quizzes
Life expectancy calculator
Online guide for children / adolescents
Training material for teachers
Games
Interactive tools
Youtube video clips
Canteen pricing for steering food choices
Age group specific activities
Discount for physical activity resources
Previously applied activities
Guidelines/principles/goals
Recommendations for healthy eating and / or physical activity
Professional program / guidelines (e.g. inclusive parent training)
Health advocates or coordinators or multiplicators
Involvement of parents (e.g. Rotterdam parental contract)
Self-awareness promotion for children / adolescents
Integrating HEP into curricula (e.g. economics, geography)
Benchmark for practitioner`s level of training
Formative adaptability to suit local resources
Practical guidance / application
Sustainability measures

Evaluation tools
Standards and methods
National evaluation standards or health issues assessment
External evaluation
Pre-Post-Long Term evaluation
Self-evaluation
Local interventions evaluation framework
Evaluation of schools and / or school initiatives
18

Organizational learning / health action cycle
Participation in research study (e.g. HBSC)
Multi-informant perspective on health (e.g. well being school staff - children)
Medical checks (e.g., at school, from physicians etc.)
Physical activity tests
Mixed methods
Audit
Materials
Documentation
Questionnaire
Target population specific, low threshold tool
WHO Health economics assessment tool
Forum for sharing intervention experiences
Guidance on budget for evaluation and dissemination
Specific evaluation tools
Dissemination tools

The first outcome for the HEPCOM needs analysis is that overall, a large number and
variety of tools are applied or needed in the partner communities. This result is similar
across a variety of partners with different backgrounds, from their type of profession and
their educational background.
The following description refers to frequencies with which tools were mentioned in the
needs analysis interviews as applied or needed. A tool can be selected up to 132 times
(=3 levels * 44 communities; because one community interview was not yet conducted
when analyzing the data).
13 tools were categorized as policy and decision making tools. The most
frequently mentioned tool is a national/regional programme, law, health profile or
curriculum tool (mentioned 34 times). The second most frequently mentioned tool is a
scientific health model and a cooperation with local health network tool (mentioned 6
times each). The most frequently mentioned tool was still reported to be used by
relatively few community partners. This means that on average, the community tools on
the policy level are not used frequently.
30 tools were categorized as strategic planning tools. The most frequently
mentioned tool is a local obesity or health indicators database and/or monitoring tool,
referring to the actual collection of data in a community (referred to16 times). The
second most frequently mentioned tool is a local or target group needs analysis tool (11
times). The third most frequently mentioned tool for strategic planning is a providing
resources (economical, staff, time, infrastructure) tool. This means that the interview
partners are able to provide resources for health promotion activities. Since the
frequency at which the tools were reported as being utilized is rather small, even for the
most frequently applied tools, tools on the strategic planning level are not very
frequently used.
17 tools were categorized as action planning tools. The two most frequently
mentioned tools are school strategy and/or program and/or curriculum tools and
city/community/ region strategy/programme/plan tools (each mentioned 13 times). The
second most frequently mentioned tool is good practice examples or database tool (7
times). Again, the low frequency at which the tools were referred to indicates that these
tools are not used frequently across the HEPCOM communities that were interviewed.
25 tools were classified as implementation tools. Most frequently mentioned is a
professional programme / guidelines tool (mentioned 9 times). The tool that was second
most frequently mentioned was recommendations for eating and / or physical activity
tool ( 5 times). Again, the low frequency at which the tools were reported as being used

19

indicate that the implementation tools are not often used or viewed as being needed by
the community partners.
21 tools were categorized as evaluation tools. The most frequently named tools are
national evaluation standards or health issues assessment tools and questionnaire tools
(mentioned 7 times each). The next two most frequently mentioned tools are
documentation and medical checks (e. g. at school, from physicians etc.) tools (4 times
each). This indicates that tools for evaluation are not used frequently.
Another finding for the needs analysis refers to the evaluation tool organizational
learning / health action cycle that structures the process of organizational development
in a problem solving framework. This tool was used by only 2 community partners.
Another observation refers to the use of databases. The application of this tool is
indicated by mentioning the strategic planning tool no. 1 (Local obesity or health
indicators database and / or monitoring). Such a database can be used to report on
indicators like the BMI in a local community. This implies that such measurements are
taken. The use of this tool was only mentioned 16 times. These types of tools seem to be
very well suited for identifying target groups and the evaluation of interventions.
The main conclusion from the description of tools that are applied by community partners
is that the tools are not used very often in the HEPCOM communities that take part in the
project. The most frequently mentioned tool, national / regional program, law, health
profile or curriculum, is only applied by a small number of communities. A local
community that uses a tool for each phase of the management circle is rare.
Regarding the frequency of tools that were mentioned as needed, we find a similar
picture as that of the applied tools.
The tools reported as most frequently needed are specific evaluation tools (mentioned
18 times).
The second most frequently needed tools are the good practice examples or database
tools.
The third most frequently needed tools are providing resources economical, staff, time,
infrastructure) as well as a common goal with internal or external partners tools (both
from the category strategic planning and referred to 11 times each).
The detailed planning or checklist of steps for intervention tool was mentioned 11 times
for the category action planning. Also, there is a relatively high need for a national /
regional program / law / health profile or curriculum tool (mentioned 9 times); it is the
fourth most frequently needed tool.
In conclusion, in general, the HEPCOM community partners express needs for tools in
health promotion and obesity prevention among children and young people in a rather
low frequency and with typical specific problems from the local communities (e.g.,
financial needs, cultural needs, balance between autonomy and regulation etc.). They
also reported needing a large variety of tools. It is also true for tools that are already
applied on community level by the interviewed partners. First of all, this indicates that
there is a great variation between communities. At the same time, most communities are
prepared to use preventive measures following a systematic public health management
cycle approach.
20


3.2 Recommendations from local communities to the learning
platform
Summarizing the recommendations made by the HEPCOM community partners
concerning the platform, two types can be distinguished: more general and more specific
content-related recommendations.

A general recommendation refers to the HEPCOM learning platform having an appealing
lay-out. It should also spell out why it makes sense for the user to go online and use the
platform. The term obesity should not be overly mentioned, because it focuses on the
ill-health spectrum too much and embodies a pathogenetic perspective.

The HEPCOM platform website should also be transparent relating to different and
changing values and norms concerning obesity and prevention of obesity which underlies
all information on the website of the platform. Further, it should contain tools for
evaluation. Other more general recommendations focus on the presentation of
information on the platform. Information should be easily accessible and easy to read,
brief and concise. There should be a database with local, national and international
references (knowledge data base). It should also have a news section with a synthesis
of news and an e-mail alert service, as well as a question and answering system. The
platform should integrate a section for each of the participating countries and this part
should be in the country language. This section should also contain documents of
relevant national legislation and policy, and programmes, etc., available in the country
languages. The platform should also include a search function with key-words that are
recognizable for different countries. It should also be possible to print out presented tools
and the background documents.

More content-related recommendations refer to the need for a section on models of good
practice. This should not only present models from western European countries but also
from mid- and eastern European countries. Sometimes differences between the different
regions in Europe are too great to enable learning from each other. The models should be
presented in a way that is easy to read and should contain ready-to-use materials (e.g.
integrating audio, video etc. material). There should also be information on evaluation
and cost-benefit analyses, etc., of these models of good practice.

The HEPCOM platform website should also include a section for tools on how to carry out
health promotion and obesity prevention initiatives at a community level related to a
project management action cycle. Tools are mentioned for different target groups at
community level. For example, evaluation and participation tools should be age-adjusted
for children and adolescents. The presentation of the tools should be brief, concise and
easy accessible and usable (user-friendly). This also means that they should be easily
transferable to the local situation of the communities in the different participating
countries (e.g., how to create a questionnaire; easy-to-use approaches). This relates to
recommendations for a section with methodological guidelines and/or tools involving new
research approaches, links to publications, projects etc. In this case, it might be useful to
create different sections and entry points for different partners in the different
communities.

It is also recommended to support networking through the platform website. To create a
community of practice there should be a kind of virtual forum where exchange of
experiences and discussion with partners is possible. Links to social networks should also
be integrated. The partners website address or email contact should be accessible on the
platform website.


21

Finally, the platform should have a training section giving partners access to, e.g., e-
learning modules to develop their competences in obesity prevention of children and
young people at community level.

To summarize the community partners wishes, their general recommendation was for an
easy-to-use learning platform with a knowledge data base; this indicates that partners
have an interest in actively adapting good practices to address their local community
needs. They are also interested in networking possibilities.
3.3 Conclusion
The analyses of applied and needed tools on health promotion and obesity prevention
among children and young people in communities at the community level revealed that
the most needed tools. These are:

1. Specific evaluation tools: Tools that are tailored to the particular needs of a
specific community;
2. A good practice database: Models of good practice which show evidence of
being practice-based;
3. Providing resources (financial, time, staff): Tools that help plan, identify and
encourage support;
4. Common goals with partners: Tools that help create a shared vision and
general aims in a consortium of different partners at the community level;
5. Detailed planning or checklist of steps for intervention: Tools for project
management;
6. Cross-regional conceptual frameworks at political level: Tools to create a
public management framework relating to health promotion and prevention of
obesity;
7. Active involvement of parents, children and adolescents: Tools for initiating
a participatory approach in health promotion and prevention of obesity.

The community partners also expressed needs for a question and answer system and a
large database for models of good practice. Community partners also expressed a wish
for tools in the communitys native language, tools targeted for the eastern European
participating countries and tools for different target groups at the community level, such
as participation tools; this underpins the need for a virtual forum with the opportunity to
exchange experiences and discussion.

It is not feasible to cluster countries or communities further into groups with reference to
their need for specific tools. Instead, communities seem to apply and need a wide variety
of tools. The needs for specific tools are diverse, while simultaneously, specific needs are
limited and often distinctive to a particular community. Since the specific situation of the
community and country determines what is needed, it is recommended that the HEPCOM
learning platform focuses on tools explaining the how of prevention and health
promotion as opposed to tools explaining what to do.
22

4 MAPPING EXERCISE: DESCRIPTION OF TOOLS FOR
HEALTH PROMOTION AND PREVENTION OF
OVERWEIGHT
The mapping exercise documents in Appendix 1 contain information on the tools of
current and completed EU financed projects. They are categorised and rated in terms of
the 5 phases of the health action cycle or management cycle; that is, if they offer any
tools in one of the 5 tools classification phases of the health action cycle or management
cycle. An overview on the mapped projects can be found below in the Summary of
identified tools in mapped projects.


23

4.1 Summary of identified tools in mapped projects

Table 2: Main focus of identified tools

No. Project Website Characterization of tools
Poli-
cy
and
deci-
sion
Stra-
te-
gic
plan-
ning
Ac-
tion
plan-
ning
Im-
ple-
men-
ta-
tion
Eva-
lua-
tion
Ma-
na-
ge-
ment
cycle
Data
base
Remark Languages
1 SHAPE UP
http://www.shapeupeurope.
net
School and community level
based all inclusive
prevention tool
X X X X X X X
Database: Some
case studies included
en de es fr it
ca; some tools in
more languages
2
Young
Minds
Young Minds Website
defunct
www.euro.who.int/__data/a
ssets/pdf_file/0016/111355/
E85627.pdf
School level based
prevention
X X X X X X X
Database: case
stories for
implementing the
Young Minds
approach in schools
en
3
Healthy
Region www.healthyregions.eu
Toolbox for regional level
strategic decision makers
implementing health
strategies
X X X
Database with good
practice examples
en and some of them
are translated into
the languages of the
participating
partners
4 PoHeFa www.pohefa.eu
Policy, health and family
learning
X X X X en, de, dk, fin, it
5
Healthy
Children
www.healthy-childen.eu
Underpriviledged community
approach for families;
community health
ambassador training
X X X X
The website and the
material is mainly in
en, but material is
translated into dan,
it, es, Croatian and
Norwegian.
6 HEPS www.hepseurope.eu
General and school based
instruments to advocate for,
assess and develop
programmes for healthy
eating and physical activity
(including general guidelines
and teacher training
module)
X X X X X X X
Database: some
case studies;
HEPS quality
checklist was
adapted by EU
prevent for
communal settings
de, en, fr, gr, nl, pl,
rus,
7
Boys and
Girls
www.boysandgirlslabs.eu
Information on healthy
lifestyle for 15-18 years
X
en, da, nl, de, it, pl
and es
24

8 Active www.myfriendboo.com
Information on healthy
lifestyle for children 5-8
years
X
Bulgarian, es, Catalan,
Czech, Serbian, en,
Albanian, it,
Macedonian,
nl/Flemish, pl, ro,
Slovak, Ukrainian,
Valencian, Vietnamese
and fr
9 IDEFICS
www.idefics.eu
www.ideficsstudy.eu/
Life-style change for
children
X
Information material
for parents and
kindergarden and
primary school
teachers
da, en, Estonian, de,
Greek, it, es, sv
10 I.Family www.ifamilystudy.eu
Life-style change in families,
tools not available yet
(X) en
11 Energy
www.projectenergy.eu/flash.
html
Energy balance
measurement for children
X
nl, da, en, de, Greek,
Norwegian, hu,
Slovene, es
12 Spotlight
www.spotlightproject.eu/
www.vu.nl/nl/index.asp
The project focuses on adults.
It is included since the project
will yield integrated
implementation approaches.
The developed instruments
are not yet available.

Information not
available
13 Epode
www.epode-european-
network.com/
Overall process tool for
prevention of childhood
obesity
X X X X X en
14 GRADIENT
www.gradient-
evaluation.eu/
Gradient Evaluation
Framework web-based tool for
policy makers to evaluate the
impact of policy action on the
health gradient
X X en
health-gradient.eu/other-
research/gradient/
Information on Gradient
Evaluation Framework for
policy makers
The Right Start to a Healthy
Life handbook contains
information for policy makers
X
en, other information
was not available on
the website

25
15 Drivers
eurohealthnet.eu/research/d
rivers
X X Case study database The website is in en
16 HCSC www.hcsc.eu
Community-based and
school-based physical
activity intervention
X The website is in en
17
Equity
Channel
www.equitychannel.net/tool
s#part-1
Information on Gradient
Evaluation Framework for
policy makers to evaluate the
impact of policy action on the
health gradient
X
Password is needed
for access to GEF
tool
En
www.equitychannel.net/get-
involved
community.equitychannel.net/
Community En
18 IMAGE www.image-project.eu
Overall process tool for
prevention of diabetes type 2
X X X X X En
19 TEENAGE
The project website is
defunct.
Policy recommendations X
Usability of tools
doubtful
En
20
European
Portal for
action in
Health
Inequa-
lities
www.health-inequalities.eu/
Information on health
inequalities

The majority of the
information is in en,
but there is also
information in other
languages (policies,
national projects
etc).
www.health-
inequalities.eu/HEALTHEQUI
TY/EN/policies/policy_datab
ase/
Policy database X X
www.health-
inequalities.eu/HEALTHEQUI
TY/EN/projects/good_practic
e_database/
Good practice database,
contains search function for
obesity prevention
X
www.health-
inequalities.eu/HEALTHEQUI
TY/EN/tools/toolkits/
Toolkits
21
Equity
Action
en

22 IMPALA www.impala-eu.org
Policy recommendations and
best practice for physical
activity infrastructures.
X X Czech, fr, de, pt
26

23
Healthy
Eco Life
The project website is
defunct.
Description of national and
international best practice
projects
X
Best practice
compendium
en, cr
24
PERI-
SCOPE
The project website is
defunct.
See instead
ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/
database.html?prjno=20063
41

Information material for
kindergardens containing
information for children.
X en, da, pl
25 EATWELL www.eatwellproject.eu
Policy recommendations and
policy evaluation; cost
effective analysis
X X da, nl, en, fr, it, pl
26 RICHIE www.childhealthresearch.eu
Health indicators database
Scientific literature search
for health indicators
X (X)
Database for
identifying indicators
en and additional
European languages
27 MOVE www.wemoveyou.eu
Information on community
based enhancement of
physical activity
X (X)
Database: Good
practice examples
for enhancing
physical activity
en (links to local
projects in Europe)
28 INFORM
www.inform-
sanicademia.org/project.php
http://www.informactive.eu/
page/61/For-Kids.htm
http://www.informactive.eu/
page/53/For-Parents.htm
Tips for children and parents
(nutritional guidance, active
families)
X de, it
29 HELENA www.helenastudy.com
International fitness scale
for evaluation purposes
X en
30 HabEat http://www.habeat.eu/
Scientific information on
learning eating habits in
children
X
da, nl, en, fr, Greek,
pt
31
Garden
Project
www.garden-project.eu
Project is indirectly suitable
for awareness-raising for
healthy eating and for
HEPCOM
X
de, es, da, Latvian
and en



27


4.2 Usability of the identified tools from all mapped projects for
the communities needs and the HEPCOM learning platform
The mapping exercise allowed the projects to be divided into three categories. The first
category contains all inclusive holistic projects that describe how to carry out a
community or school-based prevention process in a health action cycle orientated way.
Projects belonging to this category are more recent projects, including SHAPE UP, Young
Minds, PoHeFa, Healthy Children, HEPS, IMAGE and EPODE. The second category
includes projects like Healthy Regions, HEPS, Drivers, GRADIENT, IMPALA and EATWELL,
which do not use a management cycle for all phases but rather focus initially on the
political level and give political guidelines, recommendations and goals. The third
category includes projects that mainly offer implementation and evaluation tools.
According to the scheme of needed tools introduced above, these projects can be
allocated to the main analysis of identified needs as follows:

1. Specific evaluation tools: The most gaps exist in this area. SHAPE UP and the
PoHeFa project are tools for general information on designing self-evaluation and
give concrete examples. Various documents, questionnaires and tools are
available for specific evaluation purposes across the mapped projects and will
have to be judged by users of the learning platform for specific content and
usefulness.

2. A good practice database: This tool exists in the form of case study descriptions in
different projects, for example in the HEPS project. With its collection of projects
up to 2013, the Healthy Eco Life project gives an overview on good practice
projects. The Equity channel project refers to health inequalities and has a good
practice database in English with a project description for healthy eating and
physical activity. Still, this project includes very limited information on obesity
prevention.

3. A gap exists in a more practice-oriented, systematized tool that collects such good
practices from different kinds of practitioners like teachers and nurses, e.g., for
single case interventions with obese children. Since a database such as the one
described above does not seem to exist on a European level, this can be identified
as a gap that needs to be filled with a high priority, using the information that can
be retrieved from the Equity channel project.

4. Planning of providing resources: IMAGE

5. Common goals with partners: SHAPE UP, HEPS

6. Detailed planning or checklist of steps for intervention: SHAPE UP, IMAGE, HEPS

7. Trans-regional (or generic) conceptual frameworks on the political level: Healthy
cities (WHO)

8. Active involvement from parents and children and adolescents: SHAPE UP

This means it might be useful to structure the learning process on the HEPCOM learning
platform in two phases: introduction to IMAGE, SHAPE UP and HEPS as best practice
models and then searching for specific tools according to the community partners
individual needs. In relation to a conceptual background such as from IMAGE, SHAPE UP
and HEPS, community partners implementing a CBI should ask themselves:

1. What are the national / cross-regional levels frameworks and what are the goals
of communities and their partners?
28

2. How can resources be assigned (staff, infrastructure and time) and how can the
target population data be collected and monitored on a repeated basis?
3. Where is the best practice information to be found and what action will be taken?
How can our own best practice be documented?
4. How will the action be implemented?
5. What special evaluation tools do we need?

A website structure that links the identified projects to these questions might be helpful
for identifying the relevant tools for a specific community. For example, the HEPS project
is a holistic, i.e., a multi-level and multi-target group orientated programme. One focus
of HEPS is on schools, but other levels like political planning are also considered, e.g.,
within the HEPS advocacy guide. The tools for schools have an overweight-tackling
strategy on an organisational development approach for schools. It is based on a
management cycle / health action cycle for organisational overweight-prevention
measures. Three case studies show how HEPS was implemented in schools. Still, HEPS is
missing a database. To conduct an evaluation with actual BMI data, a user would have to
further search the HEPCOM website. This is also true for specific approaches for the
involvement of parents. Specific documentation templates are also available.

The informational material HEPS guidelines exists in different languages for teachers. It
contains a set of principles on healthy eating and physical activity and is intended to
support organizations working at the national or regional level. The HEPS advocacy guide
supports experts and organisations to advocate for national school policy to promote
healthy eating and physical activity.

The HEPS quality checklist can be used for strategic planning, implementing and
evaluating of any measures for overweight prevention in schools. It can help assess the
quality of school-based programmes in this specific field. Furthermore, the HEPS quality
checklist has been adapted to the specific needs and requirements of communities and
can be accessed on the webpage of EUprevent, a cross-border health promotion project
within the Euregio Maas-Rhine region (www.euprevent.eu). HEPS does not contain
specific tools for the impact evaluation. A tool to assess available resources (financial,
time and staff) is also missing. The HEPS inventory tool can be used as an inspiration for
setting up an inventory with good practice examples and intervention programmes.
Schools can find useful hints on making an inventory of national or regional programmes
within the HEPS inventory tool.


29


5 GAP ANALYSIS AND CONSEQUENCES FOR THE
HEPCOM LEARNING PLATFORM
In the above example, we find typical gaps that were already mentioned as needs by the
community partners. However, HEPS might be only partially useful for a community that
wants to allocate resources, involve parents and evaluate the effects of a social
marketing campaign in terms of BMI change.

Following a comparison of the need for tools with already existing tools in completed and
current EU-funded projects, gaps between the two were identified. The gap analysis led
to the conclusion that specialized, flexible, easy-to-make and easy-to-use evaluation
tools are missing. Another gap is the need for these tools in the 13 EU languages that are
used in the HEPCOM project. For the HEPCOM learning platform, this means that a
selection of links to national projects will be needed. The HEPCOM learning platform can
support the local communities, especially by providing a link to a general cross regional /
national framework that collects regional / national goals, and allows an integration of
the community approach into the national framework. This might not be relevant for all
HEPCOM communities, but it should be made explicit that the possibility of connecting
with such a framework can be helpful for local communities.

Since a main focus of the identified tools is on the English language, in relation to
partners needs it seems important for the HEPCOM learning platform to link to the
national projects that are named in the report by Bemelmans et al, (2011
13
). For
example, they name the EPODE project in France. These authors recommend one uses
this report as a practical toolkit (p. 50). They answer important questions, e.g.,
regarding the structure of implementing a CBI or an evaluation that the HEPCOM
community partners might also have.

HEPCOM community partners should compare their own approach with SHAPE UP, IMAGE
and HEPS. These are all-inclusive approaches to healthy communities and search the
HEPCOM learning platform for tools that might fit their individual needs.

The description of the local communities needs for tools compared to already available
tools indicates two main problems that limit the usability of those tools that are
available: one problem results from the specific needs of the communities. They ask for
tools in their own language or for specific tools for the evaluation of their particular
projects, etc. Another problem of applicability follows from tools that are more general,
project tools that often have detailed instructions, examples and recommendations as
strict guidelines. On a daily basis, at community level, the implementation fidelity of
these kinds of projects cannot always be guaranteed. It can happen that neither the
specific nor general tools that are available fit the needs of the projects that operate in a
specific setting, in a particular community. This can be considered to be a gap that has to
be filled by enabling communities to develop new and innovative tools.

This means that optimally the learning platform should have a function for users to
develop their own projects; such a function would need to be made from templates and a
single case database that contains more specific information than the good practice
database of the Equity channel projects good practice database.

The templates should document the management cycle. On the level of policy and
decision-making tools, a recommendation should be made for working on common goals
with partners. On the level of strategic planning and action-planning tools, an easily
usable, accessible, interactive multi-language forum is missing. This is a gap the HEPCOM
learning platform could address. On the level of implementation tools, there are

13
http://ec.europa.eu/health/nutrition_physical_activity/docs/report_cbis_childhood_obesity_en.pdf
30

informational materials to be chosen from and referred to, sometimes in the form of a
video or web-video for children and adolescents.

To test the predictions of the provided needs analysis, one single interview, namely the
interview of the Velje community, was inspected for needed tools and gaps in relation to
existing projects. This interview could not be included in the previous descriptions.

The community Velje in Denmark has a regional health profile. The community intends to
support schools as part of their community pilot project. The tools they use are an IT-
based system and a scientific health model as well as different collaborations with
external partners. They need:

- Tools for planning and implementing interventions;
- Tools that emphasise the interdisciplinary dimension;
- Evaluation tools;
- Tools for systemising knowledge;
- Tools for involving students.

These needs can be partly satisfied by using the HEPS tools, but it is doubtful whether
evaluation needs of this community can be supported by the HEPS tools. Although this is
just one single case with a rather highly structured national context, it is consistent with
the typical needs described in the needs analysis for the other 44 communities. The
above suggested principles of initially recommending all comprehensive approaches like
HEPS to community partners and then looking for more specific tools, might work well
with this community. In a second step, the community of Velje would look for more
specific tools for the communitys special evaluation needs.

To conclude, it seems very helpful and supportive for community practice of obesity
prevention and health promotion of children and young adults to develop a website based
meta-tool. This meta-tool would guide the activities of community partners in a
systematic way and provide them with relevant tools for action in the different phases of
project-management. Also, it seems useful to connect the HEPCOM website explicitly with
an empowerment strategy and to offer self-help. One possible example is the
development of low-threshold evaluation tools. Partners might profit more from a project
when they learn to use basic evaluation techniques for creating an appropriate tool for
their situation.

The development of virtual web-based workshops, where the community partners meet
with partners from other communities that work on similar prevention and health
promotion strategies and share their experiences with applying tools, could be very
helpful. All in all, the two most important existing gaps seem to be a useful multimedia
tool with a forum and a database for health promotion and obesity prevention best
practices in the country languages that contains easily accessible material as well as a
guideline for producing specific evaluation tools.


31


6 APPENDIX 1: MAPPING OF EUROPEAN LEVEL
PROJECTS
6.1 SHAPE UP

Question Description
Title of EU
Project
SHAPE UP: Towards a European school network to impact the
determinants of child obesity at the community level
Main and
specific
objective(s) of
the project
The fundamental premise of Shape Up was that promoting good habits
for a healthier life among adolescents requires new messages to
convey a broader vision of sound nutrition and regular physical
exercise.
Shape Up aims to:
- Bring together the principle of health education, prevention and
promotion in an integrated programme,
- Promote health and wellbeing;
- Tackle social and environmental health determinants;
- Involve schools and local communities in constructive dialogue
and action planning concerning health education and
promotion;
- Enhance childrens and young peoples competences to carry
out health promoting action and bring about positive changes;
- Undertake health-promoting action at the local level, initiated
through schools by children and adolescents, in collaboration
with local stakeholders.
- Empower a European network of schools and local actors in all
the Member States.
Theoretical
background of
the project

The fundamental premise of Shape Up was that healthier eating and
regular physical activity are keys to prevent childhood obesity and
promote health and wellbeing of children and young people. However,
healthy diet and physical activity are influenced in more efficient and
sustainable ways by addressing their determinants on school, family,
community and broader societal level, rather than solely on an
individual behaviour level.
In addition to a holistic and broad concept of health, encompassing
lifestyle and living conditions, the main characteristics of SU
methodological approach include:

32

- Genuine participation by children and young people
(ownership)
- The IVAC (investigation-vision-action-change) pedagogical
approach
- School-community collaboration
- Cross-cultural collaboration

IVAC: Investigating (I) deals with pupils common perceptions of
health problems. Pupils must be actively involved in choosing the
health topic and they need to explore the reasons why this issue is
important to them. Vision (V) deals with the development of creative
ideas, perceptions and scenarios about their future life and the society
in which they are growing up. In the action and change (A+C) pupils
build possible actions connected to the implementation of some of the
visions that have been created.

Target groups
Immediate
- Short
term
- Long
term
Children and young people aged 4 to 16 years
What is the
theme of the
project

Healthy habits promotion and competence-development
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Shape Up is based on an implementation framework that
complements and reinforces existing health education and health
promotion policies. In each city, SU counts on a local coordinator
(LC - in charge of activating community links) and a local facilitator
(LF- in charge of training in and with schools). A local promoting
group (city officials, facilitators and other stakeholders) coordinates in
every city the interaction between all stakeholders. Shape Up
activists (students and teachers) lead the participatory process in
schools and at the citys level and guarantee a maximum impact in the
whole population.
Shape Ups methodology is built on the research and experience
obtained through the European Network of Health Promoting Schools.
This methodology creates conditions under which practitioners working
with children can develop and test theories of practice.
The relevance of the methodology:


33

- Treats children as legitimate partners involving adult
stakeholders as essential and necessary participants.
- Allows greater cultural and socio-economic sensitivity.
Participatory scheme: IVAC (Investigation-Vision-Action-Change).
According to this scheme, all activities will be focused on developing
ways of supporting, facilitating and guiding children in investigating
the issues related to eating and movement from a number of different
perspectives, develop visions and dreams about possible and plan and
take action to bring about.
Description of
available and
accessible tools
(or
deliverables)
that have been
developed in
the project

PROJECT PRESENTATION
General information: A booklet to implement the Shape Up
project

This document has been created to present the Shape Up project to
local authorities and communities and to provide an overall view of all
the aspects of the project, including the methodology, organisation,
role of each partner, local activities, and the local and European
framework to be used with the project.

Available in:
en de es fr it ca

http://www.shapeupeurope.net/files/media/media32.pdf



METHODS AND RESOURCES

Methodological Guidebook
The aim of the guidebook is to describe and discuss the main
concepts, ideas and values underpinning the Shape Up approach to
influencing the determinants of childhood obesity and to provide
practical support, guidance and inspiration to the teachers, local
facilitators, local coordinators, and all other participants in Shape Up.

Also available in:

et de cs da el es fr it hu mt nl pl pt fi sv ca

http://www.shapeupeurope.net/index.php?page=project_materials&pr
oject_theme=23


TRAINING TOOLS
http://www.shapeupeurope.net/index.php?page=project_materials&pr
oject_theme=24

eTraining strategy tool
The purpose of the Shape Up eTraining tool is to transfer the Shape
Up Project and to help you to apply and test its materials by yourself
with friends, colleagues and - at the bottom line - with children and
young people in school and community settings. Please activate the
34

PowerPoint presentation mode in order to have access to all the links
provided in this eTraining strategy tool.

Available in English

Tools: The IVAC approach
The Investigation-Vision-Action-Change (IVAC) model provides a
framework for the development of health promotion strategies that
ensure that the insights and knowledge built up by pupils during the
project are action-orientated and interdisciplinary and, therefore,
conducive to the development of action competence...
Also available in:
et de cs el es fr it lv hu mt fi ca

Tools: Global Project Timeline
Shape Up Europe Global Project Timeline
Also available in:
et de cs el es fr it lv hu mt fi ca

Tools: Selection
The purpose of this Shape Up phase is to establish a dialogue about
Shape Ups overall topic: eating and body movement in relation to
health and wellbeing.

Available in English

Tools: SHAPE UP ACTIONS TO INITIATE CHANGES AT SCHOOL
AND LOCAL COMMUNITY LEVEL
All these tools are available in English
Can 'Shape Up' pupils - guided by teachers and other Shape Up adults
- bring about changes in health-related living conditions? What do
pupils learn by initiating these kinds of changes?

Tools: The Ladder of Childrens Participation
Roger Hart developed a model, the Ladder of participation, which
contains eight steps, each step representing increasing degrees of
pupil participation and different forms of cooperation with adults.

Tools: Investigation
In the Investigation phase, the topics and issues selected in the
previous phase are investigated in depth. Pupils should, with the help
of the teacher, come up with ideas as to what they want to do and
how (i.e. methods of investigation).

Tools: Remembering urban childhoods: Some lost aspects that
may need recreating
A tip for involving parents and others.

Tools: Vision
The Vision phase that follows the Investigation phase aims to develop
alternative solutions to the problems selected and investigated.

Tools: Activity: Self-guided snoop-abouts
Documenting and evaluating neighborhood living.

Tools: Collaborative dialogue between children, school and
community
An essential part of the Shape Up strategy is the creation of

35

opportunities for contact and communication between the children and
adolescents involved in the project and the universe of human
resources available locally and beyond...

Tools: Tips on listening
This skill is essential for both local coordinators and facilitators...

Tools: Process planning session for the Shape Up promoting
group (SUPG)
Process planning allows people to work together to determine the
most suitable public participation process for their particular situation.
It is particularly useful to hold sessions at an early stage in any
community planning initiative and then again at periodic intervals...

Tools: Local investigation / community profiling
Community profiling involves building up a picture of the nature,
needs and resources of a community with the active participation of
that community. It is a useful first-stage in any community planning
process to establish a context upon which there is broad consensus...

Tools: How to build a collaborative Shape Up promoting group
(SUPG)
Choosing the team members, building the team and creating a
collaborative community process.


Tools: How to create an initial strategic plan - Briefing
workshop
One of the first steps for the promoting group is to define a
preliminary strategic plan for the Shape Up project...

Tools: Brainstorming
Brainstorming can be an effective way of generating plenty of ideas on
a specific issue and then determining which idea, or group of ideas,
constitutes the best solution...

Tools: Glossary
Some activities for community participation process
Also available in:

et de cs el es fr it lv hu mt fi ca
Evaluation output analysis

Lessons learnt
Shape Up: a School Community Approach to Influencing the
Determinants of Childhood Overweight and Obesity, Lessons Learnt is
a report written by the Danish School of Education (researchers Assoc
Prof. Venka Simovska and Prof Bjarne Bruun Jensen).The purpose of
this report is to provide a synthesis of the project overall evaluation
documentation, with a view to systematically reviewing and discussing
the lessons learnt, and to suggest recommendations concerning future
practice and policy in the area of preventing childhood overweight and
obesity.

Available in English
http://www.shapeupeurope.net/index.php?page=project_materials&pr
oject_theme=35
36


Evaluation tools

http://www.shapeupeurope.net/index.php?page=project_materials&pr
oject_theme=35

Local Evaluation Kit Baseline survey & Guidance
This toolkit has been produced to assist local coordinators and other
local actors in building portfolios for the local evaluation of the Shape
Up project. The resources contained within this toolkit are designed to
allow local co-ordinators and local actors to gather data on the
perceptions of Shape Up participants and the outcomes of project
activities.

Project progress template
This template has been produced to help the project local coordinators
and facilitators to report on project development in the city.

Baseline survey & Guidance
This survey was used to measure the impact of the Shape Up project
on students ability and willingness to take action on the issues which
they consider important.
In which
languages are
the tools
available
The website and the material are mainly in English, but some material
is translated to other European languages: et de cs da el es fr
it hu mt nl pl pt fi sv ca (the methodological guidebook)
What is the
format
PDF
Where and how
have the tools
been tested
The Shape Up tools were used in different phases of the project
implementation (eg: in the development-phase the methodological
guidebook was used, during implementation the training tools were
used, and in the evaluation-phase the evaluation tools were used).
Evaluation of
tools
The Shape Up project included a test-phase of 24 months, where 20
local communities from 20 countries were offered coaching processes
based on the tools and methodology of the project. Besides this initial
training, during the whole project implementation, there were several
meetings held, where a space was dedicated to training.
Coordinator of
the project

P.A.U. Education - www.paueducation.com

P.A.U. Education is a private company based in Barcelona, Spain,
founded in 1995 with a staff of more than 50 people from 20
different countries working with public and private organisations
on a European and international level.

Their projects are based on participatory educational schemes,
community-building processes and innovative contents. They
contribute to increasing, in an ethical manner, the quantitative and
qualitative impact of our clients social responsibility actions and
communication strategies. These strategies usually focus on the
interest of the individuals they care for, the societies they are part of
and the institutions they represent.

37

Other partners
in the project

The Danish School of Education / DPU (Denmark) is a distinctive
and leading research institution within the fields of education, learning
and competence development. Its aim is to boost the quality of Danish
research and teaching in the field of education.

ABCitt (Italy) presents itself as an urban futures laboratory. It is a
social cooperative made up of a group of professionals with different
skills and knowledge, as well as experts in participatory design and
planning processes, covering a variety of fields: the promotion of
childrens rights, childhood and youth culture, human and social
science, sustainable development, management and organisation of
complex systems, urban planning and urban design, and educational
and developmental psychology.

Schulen ans Netz e.V. (Germany) is a voluntary, non-profit
organisation, founded by the Federal Ministry of Education and
Research and Deutsche Telekom AG. The objective is to firmly anchor
new media and the Internet in everyday teaching. Against the
backdrop of lifelong learning, the organisation develops practically
orientated implementation strategies of education-policy topics to
foster lasting change in school education. The projects of Schulen ans
Netz provide innovative Internet-based education models (content and
platforms) to support teachers and students in the everyday, self-
responsible and critical-minded use of new media.

The Centre for Educational Studies is located in the Institute for
Learning at the University of Hull. As well as providing training for
teachers, the Centre for Educational Studies has an internationally
recognised reputation for research, most notably in the area of health
and schools. Evaluations include National Healthy School Standard
Schemes (Devon, Liverpool), Eat Well Do Well an evaluation of the
free healthy school-meal scheme (Hull) and the National College of
School Leadership, school business managers professional
development programme (UK).

Contact person
for further
information
Claudia Alsina claudia.alsina@paueducation.com
Project Website
and / or links to
relevant
material that
can be linked to
the HEPCOM
learning
platform.
http://www.shapeupeurope.net/

Handbook
Available in:
en de es fr it ca
http://www.shapeupeurope.net/files/media/media32.pdf
Methodological Guidebook
Available in:
et de cs da el es fr it hu mt nl pl pt fi sv ca
38


http://www.shapeupeurope.net/index.php?page=project_materials&pr
oject_theme=23


TRAINING TOOLS
http://www.shapeupeurope.net/index.php?page=project_materials&pr
oject_theme=24

eTraining strategy tool


Available in English

Tools: The IVAC approach


Also available in:
et de cs el es fr it lv hu mt fi ca

Tools: Global Project Timeline


Also available in:
et de cs el es fr it lv hu mt fi ca

Tools: Selection


Available in English

Tools: SHAPE UP ACTIONS TO INITIATE CHANGES AT SCHOOL
AND LOCAL COMMUNITY LEVEL


Tools: The Ladder of childrens participation


Tools: Investigation


Tools: 1. Remembering urban childhoods: Some lost aspects
that may need recreating


Tools: Vision


Tools: 2. Activity: Self-guided snoop-abouts


Tools: 3. Collaborative dialogue between children, school and
community


Tools: 4. Tips on listening

39


Tools: 5. Process planning session for the Shape Up promoting
group (SUPG)


Tools: 6. Local investigation / community profiling


Tools: 7. How to build a collaborative Shape Up promoting
group (SUPG)


Tools: 8. How to create an initial strategic plan - Briefing
workshop


Tools: 9. Brainstorming


Tools: Glossary

et de cs el es fr it lv hu mt fi ca

Evaluation output analysis

Lessons learnt

Available in English

http://www.shapeupeurope.net/index.php?page=project_materials&pr
oject_theme=35

Evaluation tools

http://www.shapeupeurope.net/index.php?page=project_materials&pr
oject_theme=35


Local Evaluation Kit Baseline survey & Guidance


Project progress template


Baseline survey & Guidance
40

6.2 Young Minds

Question Description
Title of EU Project

Young Minds exploring links between culture, health and the
environment
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
The main objective is to develop, explore and document
democratic (participatory and action-oriented) health education
and health promotion in schools.
The specific objective to research the interplay of the
participatory and action-orientated educational approach with the
use of ICT and cross-cultural collaboration; facilitating the
articulation of young peoples voices with regard to different health
issues. To demonstrate how schools and students can be genuinely
and actively involved in these processes.
To test the hypothesis that the educational approach 1) stimulates
and encourages student empowerment and action competence and
2) will be a valuable contribution to the development of national
and international action plans in health and the environment that
integrate the concerns young people have themselves.
Theoretical
background of the
project
The theoretical framework reflects three key concepts: the
democratic approach to health education and promotion; student
participation and action; and the IVAC (investigationvision
actionchange) approach to structuring school projects in this
area.
The main principles of the approach build on key elements that
reflect the Conference Resolution from the first conference of the
European Network of Health Promoting Schools in 1997. Since
then, several projects within the European Network of Health
Promoting Schools have been based on these ideas and the
resolution as a whole, and have attempted to demonstrate the
benefits and potential of working with participatory approaches in
school health education and promotion.
Young Minds builds on the following key elements inspired by the
resolution; student participation, action and change orientation,
cross-cultural collaboration, using information and communication
technology.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Short term: The projects target-group consisted of primary and
lower secondary school students in the age-range 12-16, as well
as their teachers.
Long term: politicians and decision-makers who can benefit by
extending their knowledge of the young generations voice
concerning health-promotion.
What is the theme
of the project
Democratic paradigm of health-education. The democratic
approach to health-education and promotion builds on a broader
concept of health embracing life-quality, absence of disease, living
conditions as well as lifestyle. General planning and
implementation of health-promoting activities towards children and
young people.

41

Activities in the
project and
methodology
The Young Minds activities:
The project was initiated in 2000 and there have been several
phases of the project since then.
The Young Minds approach was used as a way of involving young
Europeans in the process leading up to WHO s Fourth Ministerial
Conference on Environmental and Health:
- Young People and Alcohol took place in Stockholm February
2000
- Education and Health in Partnerships took place in Egmont
aan Zee, Netherlands September 2002
- The Future of our Children took place in Budapest on 23-24
June 2004.
Methodology:
The concepts and ideas have been put into operation through the
Investigation, Visions, Action and Change (IVAC) approach which
implies that students and teachers in various countries should go
through several phases in working with environmental and health
problems. Together, teachers and students should chose and
investigate a problem and develop their visions for the future and
finally, try to take action to initiate change and move closer to
their visions.
This is an Internet-based project involving eight schools.
The IVAC approach was used as a process consisting of a planning-
phase, a phase with class work and cross-cultural collaboration via
the Internet and finally, participation at the conference in
Budapest.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
Young Minds tool is a platform for young people supporting them
in tackling action at global and local levels, through an approach,
focusing on genuine involvement, based on democratic and
participatory methods and the use of interactive communication
tools.
The tool enables young people from all parts of the European
region to communicate and exchange experience in various areas
related to health.
The website: Young-minds.net
The link no longer works.
In which languages
are the tools
available
The tool is described in English
What is the format A website and a number of books and reports
42

Where and how
have the tools been
tested
The tools have been tested in the Young Minds process 2000-2004
Evaluation of tools Young Minds has been self-evaluated and published in a book:
Simovska, v. Jensen, BB. Young-minds.net / lessons learned
student participation, action and cross-cultural collaboration in a
virtual classroom, Copenhagen, Danish University of Education
Press, 2003.
Coordinator of the
project
Project Coordinator; Venka Simovska, Denmark
Project Manager; Bjarne Bruun Jensen, Denmark
(The Danish University of Education)

Local coordinators in participating countries
Other partners in
the project

WHO Europe
Contact person for
further information
Venka Simovska was the Danish contact person. However, the
project is closed down, and the contact persons are probably no
longer active.
Project Website and
/ or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.

Links to the tool: http://www.young-minds.net
The link no longer works.


43


6.3 Healthy Region

Question Description
Title of EU Project Healthy Regions When well-being creates economic growth
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

The main objective of this project is to put health on the political
agenda of regions in Europe, thus addressing the need to assist
regions in looking at public health and prevention initiatives in a
more strategic way. It will develop and implement a new concept
for Healthy Regions, which shows how a pro-active, preventive,
holistic, democratic and mainstreamed focus on health and well-
being at regional level can be an economic and social growth
factor. The project will present practical methodologies that can
assist regions to look at public health and prevention initiatives
more strategically, and become Healthy Regions with the best
foundations for reaching the Lisbon strategy goals.

The specific objective is to develop, test and implement good
practice methodologies that can assist regions to become Healthy
Regions with the best foundations for reaching the Lisbon strategy
goals, through an exchange of good experiences and practices
among the participating European regions and action-learning on
regional and local level.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
-


- Long term

On the political level, the project target group consists of the
regional strategic decision-makers within regional and local health
authorities. Through the development of good practice
methodologies and guidelines, the objective is to make decision-
makers aware of the possibilities of behaving proactively in terms
of preventing health problems, hence in a longer perspective, to
encourage an effective use of resources, a healthy population,
health equality and economic growth.

On the practical level, the target group consists of health
professionals and other stakeholders, such as school teachers,
adult teachers, public-health visitors, health-care personnel, health
consultants, business consultants, HR managers, business
consultants, youth leaders and other regional actors who are in
contact with representatives from the target group on the
individual level. Through the pilot projects, representatives from
this target group will be more aware of how they can participate
actively to establish the regional health strategy on a practical
level.

On an individual level, the end-users are the general public and
citizens, e.g. parents, children, teenagers, workers, socially
excluded people who, through the pilot projects that support the
regional health strategy, will receive different kinds of health
training and information. Through the pilot projects, the individual
will be more aware about how he or she can engage themselves
and participate actively so as to create better health, either within
their family, workplace and / or school.
44

Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
Mapping of health competences
- Which competencies are available internally in the
organization in order to execute assignments related to
health promotion
Dialogue tool
- A tool to initiate a broad strategic stakeholder discussion
about how the regional or local authority understands and
wants to work with health promotion.
Scenario Planning Manual
- How to use scenario planning in health-promotion
Traffic Light Matrix
- How to assess the importance of health and health-
promotion in relation to regional growth, employment and
innovation.
In which languages
are the tools
available
English, and some of them are translated into the participating
languages of the partners
What is the format Website that functions as an archive
Where and how
have the tools been
tested
A piloting phase was incorporated in the project, where the
participating regions tried out the tools.
The project as a whole has undergone an external evaluation
Coordinator of the
project
South Denmark European Office
Other partners in
the project
DK:
The Region of Southern Denmark
The University of Southdern Denmark
University College South Denmark
Business Academy South West
SE:
East Sweden Regional Development Agency
stergotland County Council
rebro County Council
DE: Heinrich-Bll Stiftung Schleswig Holstein
Landesvereinigung fr Gesundheitsfrderung e.V. in Schleswig-
Holstein
BE: Free University of Brussels OIVO-CRIOC
UK: NIACE South West Public Health Group
IT: Veneto Region
Contact person for
further information
Henriette Hansen, South Denmark European Office
(hha@southdenmark.be)
Project Website www.healthyregions.eu

45


6.4 PoHeFa

Question Description
Title of EU Project Policy, health and family learning (PoHeFa)
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
The main objective is to increase the awareness within local
policy makers and professional practitioners of how the socio-
cultural context within the local settings, where local authorities
can intervene with health-promoting activities, has an effect on
healthy lifestyle choices and the health status within families. This
awareness will create an ability and a willingness within local
authorities, which can assist them to make better strategies and
more effective interventions through more competent professional
practitioners, which on a longer perspective will decrease the
number of obese citizens in Europe
The specific objective is to develop, test and propose a
conceptual framework of the processes and methods concerning
how local authorities qualify their health promoting activities within
obesity and healthy lifestyle choices, focusing especially on young
people and their families
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
The primary target group consists of policy makers, administrative
decision makers, professional practitioners working in the targeted
settings. The project worked closely together with this group from
the beginning.
During the trying-out phase, training was provided to professional
practitioners on how to apply and work actively with the promising
practices from the project.
The secondary target group consists of children, teenagers and
their families. This group was especially involved during the trying-
out period together with the professional practitioners.
What is the theme
of the project
General planning and implementation of health-promoting
activities towards children and young people.
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Development of a conceptual paper with the common theoretical
understanding of the project.
Carrying out of a policy analysis for each participating local
community.
Based on the recommendations of the policy analysis, a pilot
project was identified, where the local community wanted to
improve and qualify their daily practice.
The pilot projects were self-assessed and documented in a
process-mapping tool.

46

Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
The PoHeFa project has developed the following tools:
Templates to gather information and carry out a policy analysis
(policy development level)
Examples of dialogue tools, workshop tools and political debate
tools to create a strategic planning process (strategic planning
level)
Training material for professional practitioners on how to raise the
issue on healthy weight within families and Health and social
inclusion in early childhood education) (implementation level)
Self-evaluation tools, process-mapping tool and training material
(evaluation level)
In which languages
are the tools
available
The website and the material are mainly in English, but material is
translated into Danish, German, Italian and Finnish.
What is the format Texts for downloading from the website
Where and how
have the tools been
tested
The PoHeFa project included a trying-out phase, where 12 local
communities in the six participating countries were offered
coaching processes based on the tools from the project.
Evaluation of tools (has the efficiency or effectiveness of the tools been evaluated
through a self-evaluation, documentation of try-out phase or
scientific evaluation)
Coordinator of the
project
University College South Denmark is a higher education
institution offering a wide range of higher education study
programmes and courses at all levels, with an emphasis on first-
cycle bachelor degrees in the field of Educational Sciences, Health
Sciences, Social Sciences and Communication Sciences.
Geographically, UC South Denmark covers Southern Jutland and
has more than 6,500 students and 700 members of staff.
As a regional centre for knowledge and innovation in the
professions, University College South Denmark offers a broad
programme of Continuing Professional Development and has a
large department for Applied Research and Development.
University College South Denmark has peak competences in such
areas as Distance Education, E-learning, Evaluation, Health
Promotion, Organization and Leadership, Special Needs Education
and Social Work and has five national centres of excellence:
- the National Centre for Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention
- the National Centre for Social Inclusion and Exclusion
- the National Centre for Learning Ressources
- the National Centre for Free Schools
- the national centre for Exposed Children and Youngsters

47

Other partners in
the project

South Denmark European Office, Denmark
Langeland Municipality, Denmark
National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, UK
South West Strategic Health Authority, UK
Heinrich-Bll-Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Landesvereinigung fr Gesundheitsfrderung e.V. in Schleswig-
Holstein, Germany
Jyvskyl University of Applied Sciences, Finland
University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Regione Abruzzo, Italy
Alba Auxilia, Italy
Contact person for
further information
Anette Schulz, University College Southdenmark
(ans@ucsc@ucsyd.dk)
Henriette Hansen, South Denmark European Office
(hha@southdenmark.be)
Project Website and
/ or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.
www.pohefa.eu

48


6.5 Healthy Children

Question Description
Title of EU Project Healthy Children in Healthy Families (Healthy Children
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
The main objective is to improve overall health among children,
young people and their families suffering from lifestyle- related
problems such as eating disorders, under and overweight or
diabetes, and with unhealthy habits in relation to physical
activities, smoking and use of alcohol and drugs.
The project is implemented in geographical areas / communities
that are characterised by a high rate of immigrants, and/or people
from lower social classes, and/or communities which are in
general characterised as facing major social challenges. By
focusing on these specific kinds of areas, the project provides
solutions with a positive effect on the overall health among
children, young people and families exposed to health inequality.
The specific objective is to develop and implement a
community health ambassador training programme, which
enables designated persons from informal community networks
and/or from civil society organisations such as youth clubs, local
schools, sport clubs and ethnic associations to promote health
among children, young people and their families. By providing
empowerment to children and their families, health literacy and
self-care skills are established to change unhealthy habits and
develop healthier lifestyles. The training programme focuses on
the development of community-based knowledge, (inter)cultural
understanding, communication skills and strategies for action in
areas such as obesity, inactivity, diet and abuse of stimuli like
cigarettes, alcohol and drugs, in order to intervene against the
above-mentioned lifestyle diseases and unhealthy habits.
Theoretical
background of the
project
First of all, the project works with the broad and positive health
concept provided by the Dalgren and Whitehead model. It is
important for the project to use this model because it supports the
idea of the sociocultural contexts influence on the individuals
state of health. Moreover, this model is relevant for the project
because it is built following a socio-psychological and sociological
approach, which makes it possible to analyse the interaction
between all factors in the "health circle".
Secondly, the project works with an understanding of the socio-
economic context where both top-down and bottom-up
approaches are used as described by e.g. Winter, 2003 and Hill &
Hupe, 2002. What is important to understand within this model
and in relation to this project, is that the degree to which health-
promoting activities are effective and sustainable depends on the
socio-economic and cultural context in which they are
implemented.


49

Thirdly, the project works with the definition of health promotion
from WHO from 1986, stating that health promotion is: [] the
process of enabling people to increase control over, and to
improve their health (WHO 1986, Ottawa Charter), which means
that the project focuses on the importance for working actively
with the action competences of the target groups, i.e., children,
young people and their families.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
The primary target group consists of policy makers, administrative
decision makers, and professional practitioners working in the
targeted settings. From the beginning, the project worked closely
together with this group with the aim of showing them the
benefits of working more closely with civil society organisations
and volunteers
During the trying-out phase, training was provided to volunteers
The secondary target group consists of children, teenagers and
their families. During the trying-out period this group was
especially involved together with the volunteers
What is the theme
of the project
General planning and implementation of strategic collaboration
between local authorities, civil society organisations and
volunteers. The main aim is to be better prepared to reach
children, young people and their families in deprived communities.
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Development of an evidence basis what kind of activities exist
already on local, regional and national level in each country.
Development of a Competence Needs Analysis how should the
ideal voluntary local health ambassador be. What kind of
competences should this person have to be a good volunteer.
Development of a European pedagogical training frame
underlining the pedagogical principles, the necessary competences
and the ideal way of providing training.
All partners have developed and provided different kinds of
training material in English and their local languages.
As part of the training, the volunteers have developed and
implemented concrete health-promoting activities at local level in
order to apply the knowledge gained during training.
Evaluation of the training activities and the interventions that the
volunteers carried through at local level.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
The Healthy Children project has developed the following tools:
Policy recommendations on collaboration with civil society
organisations and volunteers within health promotion towards
children, young people and their families. (policy development
level and strategic planning level)
Training material for volunteers (implementation level)
Self-evaluation tools, questionnaires (evaluation level)
50

In which languages
are the tools
available
The website and the material are mainly in English, but material is
translated into Danish, Italian, Spanish, Croatian and Norwegian.
What is the format Texts and a number of digital stories for downloading from the
website.
Where and how
have the tools been
tested
The Healthy Children Project included a trial- phase, during which
local communities of the participating six provided training to
volunteers and assisted them in developing and implementing
concrete activities.
Based on the trial-phase, the training material was adjusted and
fine-tuned.
Evaluation of tools Evaluation templates were developed focusing on each level of
target groups; partners and local communities, volunteers and
citizens.
The volunteers were asked to evaluate the training they had been
given and citizens were asked to evaluate whether being in
contact with the voluntary health ambassador had made any
difference to their understanding of their own health and their
capability and willingness to live more healthily.
Coordinator of the
project
University College Lilleblt is a higher education institution
offering a wide range of higher education study programmes and
courses at all levels, with an emphasis on first-cycle bachelor
degrees in the field of Educational Sciences, Health Sciences,
Social Sciences and Communication Sciences.
Geographically, UC Lilleblt Funen and the Eastern part of
southern Jutland, with more than 6,500 students and 700
members of staff.
As a regional centre for knowledge and innovation in the
professions, University College Lilleblt offers a broad programme
of Continuing Professional Development and has a large
department for Applied Research and Development.
University College Lilleblt has five national centres of excellence:
Educational Aids and IT:
Develops knowledge of the importance of educational teaching
and learning aids for the 0-18-year-olds in the Danish education
system.

Interdisciplinary Work with Inclusion
Research for use in the interdisciplinary work with inclusion,
specifically targeting the professional efforts when working with
marginalized groups.

Food, Body and Learning
Aims to strengthen the pedagogical work focused on food and
meals in the Social Education and Teacher Education programmes,
as well as within the professions.

Health Practice
Works to solve welfare-related challenges within the health-sector

51

to ensure continuity and quality in healthcare.

Welfare Technology
Produces and communicates useful research and development
knowledge that may enable innovation and professionalisation
within welfare technology.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Focuses on welfare-innovation, innovative ways of teaching and
the didactics of entrepreneurship.
Other partners in
the project
South Denmark European Office (Co-ordinator)
Odense Municipality, DKVejle Municipality, DK
Oslo Municipality, NO
Oslo University College, NO
Coventry University, UK
Coventry County Council, UK
Local Health Trust 20, IT
Verona University, IT
The County of Karlovac, CR
Medical School of Karlovac, CR
Municipality of ARROYO DE LA LUZ, ES
Contact person for
further information
Anette Schulz, University College Southdenmark
(ans@ucsc@ucsyd.dk)
Henriette Hansen, South Denmark European Office
(hha@southdenmark.be)
Project Website and
/ or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.
www.pohefa.eu

Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner
As co-ordinator of this project, I can say that the partners have
been very pleased with the project and all the resulting local
activities, but on a strategic and long-term sustainable level, I do
not think that local communities have used the project as
intended. They have not used the project intensely enough to
create the strategic relations that were intended between the local
authorities and the civil society organisations, mobilizing people
within these organisations to work as voluntary health
ambassadors. They have mostly focused on individual volunteers,
thereby making the sustainability of the project questionable.
When proposing tools from this project it is important to focus on
the strategic value it can have for working with civil society
organisations and staff from these organisations who are close to
citizens. Only one local authority; namely Vejle Municipality, who
will participate as a pilot-setting in HEPCOM, has used the HC
project strategically. They have included the training programme
as one of their mainstreamed activities.


52

6.6 HEPS

Question Description
Title of EU Project Development and implementation of a national policy for
promoting healthy eating and physical activity for schools in
Europe (HEPS schoolkit)
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
Th main objectives e of the HEPS project are:
1. To develop, implement and evaluate an effective national policy
and sustainable practices on healthy eating and physical
activity in schools in all EU Member States.
2. To support the development and implementation of
comprehensive, sustainable and evidence-based school
programmes in the Member States to combat and prevent
overweight among school-aged children in the most efficient
way, by developing and implementing guiding principles and
tools to promote healthy eating and physical activity in schools.
The specific objectives of the HEPS project are:
1. In April 2010 (M24) the HEPS schoolkit has been developed
and made available for each Member State, consisting of a set
of tools for the national level (guiding principles on dealing with
healthy eating and physical activity in schools, the inventory
tool for available school programmes, an advocacy guide) and
for the school level (teacher training programme, practical
guidelines for implementation in schools).
2. By April 2011 80% of all EU Member States will have the
necessary resources on which to develop an appropriate
national teacher training programme on healthy eating and
physical activity.
By April 2011 50% of all EU Member States will have been
represented at the Training for Training events on HEPS and
will have developed a plan for their national training
programme on healthy eating and physical activity
3. By April 2011 90% of the EU Member States will have the
access to necessary resources to assist schools to formulate
and develop a comprehensive school policy on healthy eating
and physical activity.
4. By April 2011 80% of the EU Member States will have the
resources to identify relevant comprehensive, evidence-based
programmes on healthy eating and physical activity.
5. By April 2011 an assessment will have been made of the extent
to which the HEPS resources have been disseminated at school,
regional and at national level. By April 2011 an assessment
will have been made of the potential for sustainable
implementation and impact of the HEPS resources


53

Theoretical
background of the
project

The rising trend of obesity can be reversed through:
international action that supports national policies;
action against obesity as part of overall strategies on
promoting healthy lifestyles;
taking into account the cultural context of each country or
region, with a focus on children and adolescents.

The starting points of HEPS are:
only multi-component programmes have good prospects for
effectiveness;
schools as key settings for health promoting interventions;
the health-promoting school approach;
the experience and evidence on health-promoting school
development related to the issue of healthy eating and
physical activity among the 43 member-states of the
Schools for Health in Europe (SHE) network;
including mental health promotion;
international collaboration;
expertise from the HBSC Study (Health Behaviour in School
Children Survey, www.hbsc.org) on factors influencing
healthy eating and physical activity among adolescents and
survey measurements of predictions and outcomes.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term

The main target group of HEPS comprises all 27 national
coordinators for the SHE network in the EU member-states. The 16
SHE coordinators of the non-EU member-states are also included
among this target group, which are 43 SHE coordinators in total.
They are the first entry-points at national level for the HEPS
project.
The second target group comprises the 54 HEPS trainers of
teachers (2 per EU member-state). They will be qualified to train
teachers in primary and secondary schools in their country to
improve their knowledge and skills in implementing school
programmes on healthy eating and physical activity, and
specifically making use of the HEPS schoolkit.

Other important stakeholders for the HEPS project are:
- national policy makers and programme developers;
- regional professionals who support schools;
- research scientists and other professionals in the area of
preventive health;
- HBSC principal investigators (PI) in all HBSC member
countries;
- teacher trainers;
- school directors and teachers;
- school counselling services;
- other relevant organisations in the education sector
(including teacher organisations, parent organisations).
What is the subject
of the project
Development of a national school policy on healthy eating and
physical activity
Activities in the
project and
methodology

HEPS uses the health promoting school approach as its baseline for
developing national policies on promoting healthy eating and
physical activity in schools.
54

The HEPS project consists of the following methods:
1. The development of the HEPS schoolkit including literature
study and pilot-testing. In order to ensure enough involvement
of the education sector, a European panel of 8-10
representatives from the education sector (educationalists,
school management, teachers) was consulted during the
development of the HEPS schoolkit.
2. The introduction and dissemination of the HEPS Schoolkit in the
member-states, including teacher training.
3. The evaluation of the level of implementation of the HEPS
schoolkit.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
Policy development tool
HEPS Advocacy Guide
Arguments and strategies towards a school health policy

The HEPS Advocacy Guide assists those advocating the
development of national school policy towards promoting healthy
eating and physical activity, including mental health aspects.
The HEPS Advocacy Guide offers information with regards to the
why', 'how', 'with whom' and 'when' steps to successfully support
the implementation of the HEPS Schoolkit in participating
countries.

Available in: English and Polish

Strategic planning tool
HEPS Guidelines
Guidelines on promoting healthy eating and physical activity in
schools

The HEPS Guidelines are a set of guiding principles for promoting
healthy eating and physical activity in schools, including mental
health aspects and designed for organisations working at national
level in Europe.
The HEPS Guidelines enables school directors and professionals to
create more and better opportunities for children and young people
to consume healthy food and to be physically active. For national
or local situations the HEPS Guidelines can be used as a basis, so
that professionals can move further in developing and
implementing more specific guidelines.

Available in: English, Greek and Polish

Action planning tools
HEPS Tool for Schools
A guide for school policy development on healthy eating and
physical activity

A manual to help schools in the member-states introduce and
implement a school programme promoting healthy eating and
physical activity.
The HEPS Tool for Schools introduces the concept of school policy
on healthy eating and physical activity and provides suggestions
and guidelines for its development. It is recommended that each
school should develop and implement a policy on healthy eating
and physical activity as part of the school policy and in accordance
with regional and national health policies and priorities.

55


Available in: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and
Russian

HEPS Teacher Training Resource

The HEPS teacher training programme is a train-the-trainers
programme that can be used to train teacher trainers in each
member-state in promoting healthy eating and physical activity.
The Teacher Training Resource contains information and activities
to support the introduction of a whole-school approach to healthy
eating and physical activity in schools.

Available in: English

Evaluation tool (can also be used as an action planning tool)
HEPS Inventory Tool
An inventory tool including quality assessment of school
interventions on healthy eating and physical activity

The HEPS Inventory Tool contains a set of quality criteria for
school programmes on healthy eating and physical activity.
The tool gives guidance on how to develop a structured inventory
of existing school-based interventions on healthy eating and
physical activity at national or regional level. It also guides users
on what constitutes a high quality school-based intervention in
these areas. The quality indicators will enable EU member-states
to assess the quality of existing school-based interventions and to
promote sustainable quality development.

Available in: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and
Russian

Project presentation tools
HEPS Factsheet #1
The first HEPS Factsheet gives a summary of the HEPS Advocacy
guide and the HEPS Guidelines.

Available in: English and Spanish

HEPS Factsheet #2
The second HEPS Factsheet gives a summary of the HEPS Tool for
Schools and the HEPS Inventory Tool.

Available in: English

HEPS Factsheet #3
The third HEPS factsheet describes the Training resource and
summarises results from the HEPS Schoolkit implementation
survey that was undertaken among SHE national co-ordinators.


Available in: English
In which languages
are the tools
available

All tools, deliverables and the website are available in English.
Tools are translated in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish and
Russian. See the specific tools for the availability in other
languages
56

What is the format Texts (pdfs) to be downloaded from the website. The tools are
also available in hard copy through the SHE Secretariat.
Where and how
have the tools been
tested

Over the course of developing the tools, each was presented in
draft form and discussed with the SHE national coordinators at the
annual SHE Assembly Meetings. The feedback from the national
coordinators was integrated in the final versions of each
publication.

The draft versions of the tools were also commented on and
proofread by the educational panel. This was done electronically.
The education panel consisted of 8-10 experts from the education
sector (educationalists, school management, teachers). The
feedback of the educational panel was integrated in the final
versions of each publication.

The HEPS Teacher Training Resource was used and evaluated
during the Teacher Trainer Training.
Evaluation of tools

The tools were evaluated through interviews with the SHE national
coordinators. The main findings were:

The HEPS Inventory tool: described as one of the more
innovative tools. This tool is considered useful by SHE NC, more
for the regional or national levels than for the school level. It is
also useful for scientists and people from the field in setting up
quality indicators for their work. Among some SHE NC some
serious doubt exists regarding the financial feasibility of setting up
an inventory and following it up.

The HEPS Advocacy Guide: also described one of the more
innovative tools, the Advocacy Guide is described by 48% of SHE
national coordinators as very useful.

Other tools: there is less to say about the other tools. The good
score obtained by the HEPS Training Resource can be mentioned
again. However, it must be emphasized that the various tools were
written for different target audiences.

An implementation survey was carried out among 24 SHE national
coordinators at the end of 2010 / beginning of 2011. Amongst
others the results demonstrated the following:

1. During the period of one year within which the HEPS toolkit
was introduced and made available, the majority (90%) of
national coordinators read the publications, 60%
disseminated these materials to different organisations
mainly at national level. Publications were translated in only
a few countries.
2. Approximately 70% of the national coordinators recognized
that HEPS publications and the HEPS project as a whole,
are useful or very useful for developing policy on healthy
eating and physical activity and supporting health-
promoting school activities. About 30% of respondents
assessed this usefulness as very low or low.


57

Coordinator of the
project

NIGZ (Netherlands Institute for Health Promotion) now CBO.
The Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement (CBO) is a not-
for-profit research organisation and its core business is improving
quality in health-care and supporting healthcare and health
promotion practice. It acts as a WHO Collaborating Centre for
School Health Promotion. CBO coordinates the SHE network, which
is a well-established and WHO and EC-supported network, with
members from all EU member-states and other European
countries. CBO supports professionals in the field of practice, policy
and research by (action) research, innovation, development and
implementation of health promotion. Specifically, CBO aims to
offer support in those stages in life and in those settings where
important health gains could be achieved: in schools, among
vulnerable groups, and with regard to healthy aging, health
literacy, and healthy communities.
Other partners in
the project

Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Welsh Assembly Government, Wales
Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Copenhagen,
Denmark
Institute of Child Health, Greece
University Maastricht, Netherlands
NHS Health Scotland
Warsaw University, Poland
University of Bergen, Norway
Leuphana University Lneburg, Germany
National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Boltzmann Institute Health Promotion Research (LBIHPR), Austria
State Environmental Health Centre, Ministry of Health, Lithuania
Contact person for
further information

Goof Buijs, CBO (g.buijs@cbo.nl)
Silvia de Ruiter, CBO (s.deruiter@cbo.nl)
Project Website and
/ or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.
www.hepseurope.eu (will not exist much longer ) and
www.schoolsforhealth.eu (all HEPS materials can be found on the
SHE website)
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner
Community Checklist available
58

6.7 Boys and Girls

Question Description
Title of EU Project Boys and Girls An interactive web-based series to promote
healthy lifestyles among European adolescents
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
The main objective of the Boys and Girls project is to develop and
evaluate a web campaign to increase the awareness of risky
lifestyles for young people aged 15-18 years old who are
unemployed and not in school.
The specific objectives of the project are as followed:
Prepare for the web campaign: Final messages and production
of the web-series were developed, peer reviewed and validated
over the project duration by issue experts, a focus group of
adolescents and social networks
Roll-out the web campaign: Included activities aimed at
gathering interest for the series through social networks, media and
web-based channels, etc., as well as the display of the series on the
relevant sharing platforms (eg., YouTube, Daily Motion, Revver,
Veho,etc.)
Evaluate the web campaign: The aim is to test the effectiveness
of a communication approach to youth aged 15-18 who are neither
in work nor in education, that could be applied across the board on
health policies
Theoretical
background of the
project
Young Europeans from all backgrounds share the same passion for
the internet and new media. To them, this medium is accessible
and democratic, and it overcomes geographical, social, educational
and economic boundaries. Boys and Girls aimed to leverage this
trend by developing a pilot web-series that targets young
Europeans aged 15-18 who are neither in work nor in education.
The series is compelling, emotional and relevant, and focuses on
real-life health issues that affect all teenagers, but particularly
those in this vulnerable target group.
These include nutrition, alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual health.
The topics have been chosen in consideration of the alarming data
of the Eurostat Report "Youth in Europe - a statistical portrait;
e.g.19.4% of the Danish aged 15-24 are overweight, 49.9% of
Austrians aged 15-24 are daily smokers, 16.5% of Italians aged 15-
34 smoke cannabis, 50% of Germans aged15-16 have been drunk
at least once in the last 12 months.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Primary target: young people aged 15-18 neither employed or in
school
2nd target: all 15-18 year old adolescents
3rd target: all people interested in adolescents' health (parents,
educators, decision-makers, etc.)

59

What is the subject
of the project
Health promotion: raising awareness about risky lifestyles, for and
by teenagers
Activities in the
project and
methodology
The methodology and activities have been structured as follows:
This phase relates to preparing for the web campaign
- The construction of peer review groups for 6 EU countries to
validate messages and story lines throughout the production
process.
- In three rounds the project's target group was involved in
the development of the web-series. There were discussion
rounds and the peer-review was complemented by feedback
gathered through social networks via online questionnaires
This method ensured that the messages and approaches resonate
with the target audience. This phase related to Specific Objectives 1
and 3.
- An integrated communication and dissemination plan has
been carried out during the course of the project. Activities
included gaining interest for the project and series through
social networking sites, in the media, partners and other
stakeholder networks.
This method ensured the right mix of communication tools for
communicating the project and the final series.
This phase relates to rolling-out and evaluating the web campaign
- The consortium elaborated on an inception report.
- The evaluation strategy aimed at evaluating the quality and
efficiency of the outputs, as well as the relevance of the
method for reaching the target group.
- The results were presented in a specific report at the end of
the project.
- The elaboration of recommendations on the use of Internet
to communicate health-related issues to the target group.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
Boys and Girls Brochure
Brochure summarizing the Boys and Girls project, including a
description of the series, target group and project contacts
The brochure is available in English, Danish, Dutch, German,
Italian, Polish and Spanish.
Final peer review: Questionnaires
Peer review questionnaires have been developed to allow for
feedback from the target audience on aspects of the web-series,
i.e., regarding the main characters in the web-series, the first
episode of the series and series messages.
60

These questionnaires were available online in English, Danish,
Dutch, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.
Final reports: Peer review research
Final reports of the results from the questionnaire-based research
for peer feedback on the series (mentioned above) are also
available.
There are three documents in pdf format available in English
Web-series messages
Messages for the web-series have been formulated with the help of
experts, production team, communication specialists and the focus
group of teenagers. The messages are presented in one document.
The topics include sexual health, nutrition, alcohol and drugs. There
is one headline message and several sub-messages for each topic.
The messages document is available in English as a pdf text
Web-series
The web-series is a series of short films on the four health topics
(sexual health, nutrition, alcohol and drugs) promoted on the most
popular web video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, DailyMotion
and Vimeo and on social networking sites like Facebook, Hyves,
Netlog, Tuenti and Nasza-Klasa.
Boys and Girls Project in 3 minutes
This film summarizes the message and findings of Boys and Girls,
a unique and inspiring European project which aims to delve into
the demanding world of teens.
The film is a available on YouTube in English
Source: www.boysandgirlslabs.eu
In which languages
are the tools
available
See previous section
What is the format See above
Where and how
have the tools been
tested
The messages and web-series have been formulated and tested in
the participating countries with the help of experts, production
teams, communication specialists and the focus group of teenagers.
They were tested using focus groups and peer review
questionnaires.
Evaluation of tools A first evaluation of the series was made in summer 2012.
Coordinator of the
project
CBO http://www.cbo.nl/en/


61

Other partners in
the project

Business Solutions Europa (BSE)
Animation Studios di Barile Nicola & C (AS)
Slaski Uniwersytet Medyczny w Katowicach (SUM)
Centro de Recursos Comunitarios (EDEX CRC)
Poznan University of Medical Sciences (PUMS)
Katholische Fachhochschule GmbH (KATHO)
Center for Sex og Sunded (CSS)
European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research (ECSWPR)
Contact person for
further information
Jan Jansen; J.Jansen@cbo.nl
Project Website
and / or links to
relevant material
that can be linked
to the HEPCOM
learning platform.
www.boysandgirlslabs.eu
http://www.boysandgirlslabs.eu/?page_id=91&begid=1555


62


6.8 Active

Question Description
Title of EU Project Animation for Children to Teach and Influence Values and Views
on healthy Eating and physical activity (ACTIVE)
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
Three main objectives:
- to overcome the common communication barriers to
children on nutrition, by using messages that resonate
with them and using a creative form of communication
which they enjoy watching and are captivated by
- to help children understand how a healthy diet along with
physical activity can significantly improve their lives.
- to make children, their parents and educators more aware
of the importance of a healthy diet and physical activity.
The specific objectives are:
- to define age-appropriate messages on food and nutrition
- to reach children aged 5-8
- to reach educators and families.
Theoretical
background of the
project
Children will not only become consumers as adults, but they also
have a strong influence on their parents shopping habits. They
have also dramatically increased their TV exposure. Children (and
their families) usually know the right things to do and eat, but do
not always behave accordingly. Therefore an effective strategy for
reaching children should not only give them knowledge of food,
but also build a strong emotional participation in which our
targets can identify and thus modify their behaviour. Health,
intended as food and lifestyle, is not cool for children, and does
not awaken childrens interest, moreover direct communication on
health issues (made by adults and authorities who are not cool) is
ineffective.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Direct target group: children aged 5-8
Indirect target group: educators and families
What is the theme of
the project
The ACTIVE partnership co-produced three health-themed
episodes of a TV cartoon animation series that tells positive,
inspiring and fun stories about healthy living, healthy eating and
physical activity. The three episodes, along with a tailor-made
teaching pack, will show children how a healthy diet along with
physical activity can significantly improve their lives and their
futures.
Activities in the
project and
methodology
ACTIVE main activities were:
- An initial phase of content development involving the
animation team, our scientific partners, experts in food

63

and nutrition and the pedagogic network of childrens
museums and schools across 6 European countries
- The creation of a Pedagogic Evaluation Committee (PEC)
and a group of 600 children from 6 EU schools (Italy,
Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Belgium and Spain) to support
the pre-production and assist with the development of
age-appropriate messages
- The production and post-production of three animated
stories for TV broadcasting
- The development of a teaching pack to support the
integration of the three episodes into formal education
- The roll out of a project communication plan and TV
outreach
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been developed
in the project
Among the others, the deliverables worth mentioning are the
following:
3 cartoon animation episodes:
Worldenball (8 minutes)
Zenos Birthday (8 minutes)
A little bit of everything (2,5 minutes)
In addition, a Teaching Pack complements the animations. It
builds on the content developed and tested during the project
with the support of scientific and pedagogic partners. The
Teaching Pack was structured in a way that can also be used if
schools are not equipped for viewing the cartoon animation
(indeed it contains plenty of visuals) and is still readable and fully
useable even if cannot be colour-printed
It was therefore a shared effort which involved all partners and
the target group (via the focus group) at different stages.
The Episode and the Teaching Pack has been made available on
www.myfriendboo.com for free download (for not commercial
purposes).
In which languages
are the tools
available
Bulgarian, Spanish, Catalan, Czech, Serbian, English, Albanian,
Italian, Macedonian, Dutch / Flemish, Polish, Romanian, Slovak,
Ukrainian, Valencian, Vietnamese and French.
What is the format Video / Words documents / PDF
Where and how have
the tools been tested
Messages have been developed by experts on nutrition and
healthy living style.
A focus group of 562 children from 6 EU schools was created to
evaluate with the help of three questionnaires the impact of the
cartoon animation contents and the teaching pack,: the 1
st
aimed
at testing the childrens knowledge on food and nutrition,
provided information and creative input for scriptwriters. The 2
nd

questionnaire aimed at evaluating the content of the first
storyboard as well as the visual impact of the characters. This
allowed the animators to adopt changes in due course. The 3
rd

64

questionnaire allowed the children (in this phase we had another
478 children visiting the childrens museums) and their parents
to give their view on the cartoon animation and it was also used
to test the teaching pack;
In total 1040 children participated in the pedagogic evaluation.
In addition, as part of the pedagogic evaluation, all 6 schools,
have tested Teachers Pack during the project duration
Evaluation of tools Methodology and contents have been well received by heads of
TV children programming.
Coordinator of the
project
Business Solutions Europa is a dynamic Public Affair and
Communication agency which aims to bring Europe closer to
Europeans through creative communication. Their team of project
managers, communications and broadcast specialists has led and
coordinated the partnership and the international co-production.
Business Solutions Europa is the main contact for questions and
follow-up with interested stakeholders
Other partners in the
project
Griffilms - Animation partner
Istituto G. Gaslini - Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of
Childhood Obesity - Content partner
Universit di Napoli Federico II - Department of Food Science
(UNINA) - Content partner
Explora - Kids Coordinator
Contact person for
further information
Luigi Petito
Project Leader
luigi@bs-europa.eu
Project Website and /
or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.
http://www.animate-eu.com/active/
www.myfriendboo.com
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner
Should HEPCOM be interested in including the tools (ie episodes
and teaching pack), an agreement needs to be signed between
the project coordinator and Business Solutions Europa. This
agreement will set the rules of the non-commercial exploitation of
the ACTIVE products


65


6.9 IDEFICS

Question Description
Title of EU
Project
IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of Dietary- and lifestyle-induced health
Effects In Children and infants)
Information taken from
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=234&back=true
Main and
specific
objective(s) of
the project
The study delivered reliable data for making possible an international
assessment of the problem of "obesity in children".
The results of the study are currently being incorporated into various
guidelines on nutritional, behavioural and lifestyle, as well as ethical aspects in
all participating countries.
The I.Family study (see 8.10 I.Family) builds on IDEFIX.
Theoretical
background of
the project
The focus of the IDEFICS Study lay in exploring the risks for overweight and
obesity in children as well as associated long-term consequences. Beyond pure
research, IDEFICS offered activities for health promotion and prevention in
kindergartens and schools. These prevention programmes were developed,
implemented and evaluated within the IDEFICS Study.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short
term
- Long
term

Settings:
Families
Kindergarten
Communities
School
Children in Kindergarten (2-5) and primary schools (6-10)
What is the
subject of the
project
Learning about healthy living in families, kindergartens, schools and
communities
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Interventions include among others:
Counselling / Coaching / Family visits
Information
Structural change in kindergartens and primary schools
Longitudinal survey
Description of
available and
accessible tools

Tools for parents of kindergarten children, primary school children and for
kindergartens and primary schools as well as for the children, containing
interactive games, podcasts and information flyers and posters with tips on
66

(or
deliverables)
that have been
developed in
the project
topics like water consumption, vegetables, sleeping, activity etc. (languages:
Englisch, German, Italian, Spanish, Estonaian, Greek, Belgian, Swedish)
In which
languages are
the tools
available
Dutch, English, Estonian, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Swedish,
http://www.ideficsstudy.eu/Idefics/language?lan=En
What is the
format
Interactive webgame; PDFs
Where and how
have the tools
been tested
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Wolfgang Ahrens
Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine (BIPS)
University of Bremen (UNIHB)
Achterstrasse 30
28359 Bremen Germany
Email: idefica@bips.uni-bremen.de
Web:www.bips.uni-bremen.de
Coordinator of
the project
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Wolfgang Ahrens
Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine (BIPS)
University of Bremen (UNIHB)
Achterstrasse 30
28359 Bremen Germany
idefics@bips.uni-bremen.de
Other partners
in the project

Research institutions in the IDEFICS consortium

Ghent University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (UGENT),
Department of Public Health / Department of Movement and Sport Sciences
Research and Education Institute of Child Health (REF)
Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Department of Intercultural
Communication and Management - DEN - Consumer Science
National Institute for Health Development (NIHD), Tervise Arengu Instituut
University Joseph Fourier (UJF), Laboratory of Nutrition, Ageing and
Cardiovascular Diseases
University of Bremen (UNIHB)
Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine
Technologie-Transfer-Zentrum Bremerhaven (TTZ), Sensory Laboratory
University of Glasgow (UGLW), Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences
Lancaster University, Department of Philosophy (ULANC)
University of Pecs, Medical Faculty, Department of Paediatrics (UPE)
University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), Centre for High Technology
Research and Education in Biomedical Sciences
National Research Council, Institute of Food Sciences (ISA-CNR), Unit of
Epidemiology and Population Genetics
National Cancer Institute (INT), Nutritional Epidemiology Unit
University of Milan (UNIMI), Department of Pharmacological Sciences

67

University of Zaragoza (UZAZ)
University Illes Balears (UIB), Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Nutrition and
Biotechnology
Goteborg University (UGOT), Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, Department of
Pediatrics

Small and medium enterprises (SME)

The European Food Information Council (EUFIC)
Laboratoriumsmedizin Dortmund, Eberhard and Partner (EBERH)
BioTel Ltd (BT)
Pecs TV Communication Ltd (PTV)
Agora Med srl (AMED)
Gockel Design (GD)
Contact person
for further
information
See coordinator
Project Website
and / or links to
relevant
material that
can be linked to
the HEPCOM
learning
platform.
Tools for parents of kindergarten children, primary school children and for
kindergartens and primary schools as well as for the children, containg
interactive games, podcasts and information flyers and posters with tips on
topics like water consumption, vegetables, sleeping, activity etc. (languages:
Englisch, German, Italian, Spanish, Estonaian, Greek, Belgian, Swedish):
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=236&back=true
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=246&back=true
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=603&back=true
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=441&back=true
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=1191&back=true
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=747&back=true
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=1015&back=true
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=682&back=true

Scientific Articles and publications from the IDEFICS study:
http://idefics.eu/Idefics/webcontent?cmd=innerDoc&path=2908&start=true
Any additional
comments from
the HEPCOM
partner
Information and games for parents, kindergartens and schools, to learn a
healthy lifestyle regarding topics like water consumption, physical activity or
vegetables intake.

68


6.10 I.Family

Question Description
Title of EU Project I.FAMILY

Information taken from http://www.ifamilystudy.eu and
http://www.ifamilystudy.eu/wp-
content/uploads/2013/01/iFamily-leafletA4Engsm.pdf

Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
The I.Family Study investigates the determinants of
Food-choice, lifestyle and health in European children,
adolescents and their parents.

Strategic objectives:
(1) to understand the interplay between barriers and drivers
towards healthy food-choice, and (2) to develop and disseminate
strategies for inducing changes promoting healthy dietary
behaviour in European consumers, especially children,
adolescents and their parents
Theoretical
background of the
project
Builds on the IDEFICS Study
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Adolescents
What is the subject
of the project
Learning about healthy living in families
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Longitudinal observation of IDEFICS cohort
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been developed
in the project
Not yet available

69

In which languages
are the tools
available
English
What is the format Not yet available
Where and how have
the tools been tested
Tools will be tested within I.FAMILY.
Evaluation of tools Not yet available
Coordinator of the
project
Ina Alvarez Franco
University of Bremen (UNIHB)
Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research & Epidemiology BIPS
GmbH
Achterstrasse 30
28359 Bremen Germany
Email: i.family@bips.uni-bremen.de
Telephone: +49 (0)421 218 56-837
Fax: +49 (0)421 218 56-821
Other partners in the
project
Universitaet Bremen UNIHB Germany
Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche ISA-CNR Italy
Copenhagen Business School CBS Denmark
Lancaster University ULANC United Kingdom
University of Gothenburg UGOT Sweden
Helsingin Yliopisto UHEL Finland
Universitat de les Illes Balears UIB Spain
Pecsi Tudomanyegyetem (University of PECS) UPE Hungary
Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht UMCU Netherlands
Research and Education Institute of Child Health LBG REF
Cyprus
Tervise Arengu Instituut NIHD Estonia
Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Dei Tumori -INT Italy
University of Bristol UBR United Kingdom
Minerva Public Relations & Communications Ltd MIN United
Kingdom
The Leibniz-Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology
BIPS Germany
Gent Universiteit UGENT Belgium
Universidad de Zaragoza UNIZAR Spain
Contact person for
further information
See Coordinator and http://www.ifamilystudy.eu/project-
information/what/
Project Website and /
or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.
http://www.ifamilystudy.eu
Publications:
http://www.ifamilystudy.eu/project-publications/
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner
Learning about healthy living in families. Tools not yet available.
70

6.11 Energy

Question Description
Title of EU
Project
Energy (EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive
weight Gain among Youth)
Information taken from http://www.projectenergy.eu/flash.html
Main and specific
objective(s) of
the project
Measuring intake of energy; determinants of energy intake
Theoretical
background of
the project
Not identified
Target groups
Immediate
- Short
term
- Long term
10-12 year old school children
What is the
subject of the
project
Healthy eating and energy balance
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Not identified
Description of
available and
accessible tools
(or deliverables)
that have been
developed in the
project
Energy balance questionnaire for children and parents
In which
languages are
the tools
available
Dutch, Danish, English, German, Greek, Norwegian, Hungarian,
Slovene, Spanish
What is the
format
PDF
Where and how
have the tools
been tested
School children and parents were identified in the participating
countries
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/scien
tificpublications/protocol%20CSS%20van%20Stralen%202010.pdf

71

Evaluation of
tools
School children and parents were identified in the participating
countries
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/scien
tificpublications/protocol%20CSS%20van%20Stralen%202010.pdf
Coordinator of
the project
Johannes ('Hans') Brug is Associate Dean for Research, Chair of
Division VI and Professor of Epidemiology at the VU University Medical
Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Other partners in
the project
Not identified
Contact person
for further
information
Amika Singh
EMGO Institute - VU University medical center
P.O. Box 7057
1007 MB Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Project Website
and / or links to
relevant material
that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.
Project Website:
http://www.projectenergy.eu/
Questionaire Tools for children:
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20Belgian.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20Greek.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20English.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20Hungarian.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20Dutch.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20Norwegian.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20Slovenian.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20Spanish.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/c
q/ENERGY%20cq%20Swiss.pdf


72

Questionnaire Tools for parents:
http://www.projectenergy.eu/flash.html
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20Belgian.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20Greek.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20English.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20Hungarian.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20Dutch.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20Norwegian.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20Slovenian.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20Spanish.pdf
http://www.projectenergy.eu/oeffentlicher_bereich/publications/emi/p
q/ENERGY%20pq%20Swiss.pdf
Any additional
comments from
the HEPCOM
partner
Energy intake questionnaires for children and parents that might be of
heuristic and evaluational value for health practitioners, and for
project success. Norms could not be identified.



73


6.12 Spotlight

Question Description
Title of EU Project

SPOTLIGHT (Sustainable prevention of obesity through integrated
strategies)

Information taken from project website and abstract of
publication http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-
2458/12/793/abstract

The project focuses on adults. It is included since the project will
yield integrated implementation approaches.
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

The core objective is to provide an evidence-based model for
effective integrated intervention approaches in health-promotion
practice applicable across European regions.
Theoretical
background of the
project

It is increasingly being recognised that effective responses must
go beyond interventions only focusing on a specific individual,
social or environmental level and instead, embrace system-based
multi-level intervention approaches that address both the
individual and the environment.
Target groups
Immediate
Short term
Long term

Adults

What is the subject
of the project

Sustainable prevention of obesity through integrated strategies
Activities in the
project and
methodology

SPOTLIGHT comprises a series of systematic reviews on:
individual-level predictors of success in behaviour-changing
obesity interventions; social and physical environmental
determinants of obesity; and on multi-level interventions.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been developed
in the project

An interactive web-atlas will be developed of multi-level
interventions currently in place, and enhancing and impeding
factors for implementation will be described. At neighbourhood
level, these elements will inform the development of methods to
assess the obesogenicity of diverse environments, using remote-
imaging techniques linked to geographic information systems.

The developed instruments are not available yet.

http://www.spotlightproject.eu/developed-instruments.html
In which languages
are the tools
available

Information not available.
74

What is the format

Information not available.
Where and how have
the tools been tested

The validity of the methods will be evaluated using data from
surveys of health and lifestyles of adults residing in the
neighbourhoods surveyed. At both micro- and macro-levels
(national and international) the different physical, economical,
political and socio-cultural elements will be assessed.
Coordinator of the
project

VU University Medical Center (The Netherlands)
Coordinating centre
Prof. Johannes (Hans) Brug (PhD), Project coordinator
Prof. Giel Nijpels (MD, PhD), Vice Chair of the coordinating centre
Jeroen Lakerveld (PhD), Project Manager
Prof. Jacob (Jaap) C. Seidell (PhD)
Sandra Bot (PhD)
Joreintje Mackenbach

SPOTLIGHT is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme
(CORDIS FP7) of the European Commission (FP7-HEALTH-2011).
http://www.spotlightproject.eu/funding.html
Other partners in the
project

http://www.spotlightproject.eu/partners.html

Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal)
Prof. Pedro J Teixeira (PhD)

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (United
Kingdom)
Prof. Martin McKee (MD, DSc)
Harry Rutter (MB, BChir)

The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO)
Euan Woodward

The University of Bergen (Norway)
Prof. Oddrun Samdal (PhD)
Ingrid Leversen

The University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
Charlie Foster (PhD)
Lynn Stockley
Gill Cowburn

Ghent University (Belgium)
Prof. Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij (PhD)
Greet Cardon (PhD)
Sofie Compernolle

Metropolitan University College Copenhagen (Denmark)
Aileen Robertson (PhD)
Ann Fenger Benwell (PhD)

Maastricht University (The Netherlands)
Patricia van Assema (PhD)
Stef Kremers (PhD)
Jessica Gubbels (PhD)

75


International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO),
International Obesity-Taskforce (IOTF)
Prof. Tim Lobstein (PhD)

The Nutrition Epidemiology Unit (France)
Prof. Jean-Michel Oppert (MD, PhD)
Hlne Charreire (PhD)
Maher Ben Rebah (PhD)
Serge Hercberg (MD, PhD)

Blox Group (The Netherlands)

University of Debrecen (Hungary)
Prof. Rza dny (MD, PhD, DSc)
Helga Brdos (MD, PhD)
Contact person for
further information

Project Coordinator's office:

Jeroen Lakerveld, PhD
project manager SPOTLIGHT
VU University Medical Center, EMGO Institute for Health and Care
Research
Van der Boechorststraat 7
1081 BT Amsterdam
The Netherlands

j.lakerveld@vumc.nl
T +31 (0)20 444 83 95
F +31 (0)20 444 83 61
http://www.spotlightproject.eu/contact.html
Project Website and /
or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.

http://www.spotlightproject.eu/

The developed instruments are not yet available.
http://www.spotlightproject.eu/developed-instruments.html

Reports are not yet available.
http://www.spotlightproject.eu/reports.html

Scientific publication:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/793/abstract
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner

The project focuses on adults. It is included for information
purposes since the project will yield integrated implementation
approaches.
76


6.13 Epode

Question Description
Title of EU
Project
EPODE (Together Lets Prevent Childhood Obesity- Ensemble Prvenons
lObsit Des Enfants)
Main and
specific
objective(s)
of the
project
The objective is to foster healthier lifestyles and contribute to the
reduction of childhood overweight and obesity through a methodology that
establishes prevention at the heart of the city networks. The 4 pillars of
EPODE are: strong political will, a sound scientific background, a social
marketing approach and multi-stakeholder approach.
Source: Focusing on obesity through a health equity lens report. From
EuroHealthNet, March 2010
Theoretical
background
of the
project
The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased worldwide over
the last 30 years. Although there are signs of stabilisation in children of
some age-groups in certain countries, large-scale, effective prevention of
overweight and obesity remains a pressing public health priority, given the
adverse impact on health and quality of life in childhood and the increased
risk of obesity and associated non-communicable diseases (diabetes,
cardio vascular diseases, cancer) in adulthood. Nearly two thirds of
children with obesity will continue to suffer from the condition throughout
their adult life.
Prevention through promotion of healthier lifestyles is crucial from an
early age and must rely on networks of local actors if it is to reach the
families in their daily lives, and this on a long-term basis. After the
positive results of the FLVS study (1992-2004), in 2004 the EPODE
methodology was launched with 10 French pilot towns (who have globally
experienced a downward trend in the prevalence of childhood overweight
and obesity over the last 5 years), and was up-scaled to more than 500
towns around Europe from 2007.
Source:http://www.epode-international-network.com/what-is-
ein/background/tackling-obesity-and-ncds
Target
groups
Immediate
- Short
term
- Long
term
Children (and families) living in Europe. Lower socio-economic groups are
not specifically targeted.

Source: Focusing on obesity through a health equity lens report. From
EuroHealthNet, March 2010
Activities in
the project
and
methodology
EPODE is a coordinated, capacity-building approach aimed at reducing
childhood obesity through a societal process in which local environments,
childhood settings and family norms are directed and encouraged to
facilitate the adoption of healthy lifestyles in children (ie. the enjoyment of
healthy eating, active play and recreation).

77


EPODE philosophy is based on multiple components, including a positive
approach to tackling obesity, with no cultural or societal stigmatisation;
step-by-step learning, and an experience of healthy lifestyle habits,
tailored to the needs of all socio-economic groups.

EPODE target groups are children, families and local stakeholders.
Through initiatives and a long-term programme, stakeholders foster and
promote healthy lifestyles in families in a sustainable manner.

The EPODE four pillars (a strong political commitment, support services
inspired by social marketing techniques, mobilization of resources
including public-private partnerships and evidence including a
multidisciplinary evaluation) have been sub-divided into ten EPODE
implementation principles, which describe the EPODE methodology :

Each country (or region) commits to a central coordination
support/capacity;
1. Each local community has a formal political commitment for several
years from the outset;
2. Each local community has a dedicated local project manager with
sufficient capacity and cross-sectoral mandate for action;
3. A multi-stakeholder approach is integral to the central and local
structures and processes;
4. An approach to action is planned and coordinated using social
marketing. This is specifically to define a series of themed
messages and actions, informed by evidence, from a wide variety
of sources, and in-line with official recommendations;
5. Local stakeholders are involved in the planning processes and are
trusted with sufficient flexibility to adapt actions to local contexts;
6. The right message is defined for the whole community. However,
getting the message right means tailoring to different
stakeholders and audiences;
7. Messages and actions are solution-orientated and designed to
motivate positive changes and not to stigmatise any culture or
behaviour;
8. Strategies and support services are designed to be sustainable and
backed by policies and environmental changes.
9. Evaluation and monitoring are implemented at various levels. This
is achieved through the collection of information on process, output
and outcomes indicators, and decides the future development of
the programme.
Source: http://www.epode-international-network.com/what-is-
ein/background/epode-background


78

Description
of available
and
accessible
tools (or
deliverables)
that have
been
developed in
the project
1. EEN Book of Recommendations: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/EEN_Recommendations.pdf
A collaborative and multi-disciplinary initiative, whose objectives
have been to develop and disseminate recommendations for the
implementation of community-based interventions aimed at
preventing childhood obesity.
2. EEN project:
- EPODE deployment and EPODE European Network leaflet:
http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/leaflet%20een_bd
-sc.pdf
- EPODE European Network 1st Symposium Highlights:
http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/EENSymposiumpresentations/een_
symposium2009_highlight.pdf
- EPODE European Network Memo: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/pdf_2_een_memo
.pdf

3. EPODE in France:
The EPODE methodology was initiated and developed in France in
2004. It started with 10 pilot cities and now extends to 226 French
cities.
- EPODE abstract: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/pdf10_epode_mar
ch09.pdf
- EPODE News September 08: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/pdf11_epode_lettr
e%20liaison.pdf
- EPODE News March 09: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/pdf12_epode_lettr
e%20liaison.pdf
- Highlights of last EPODE National Congress October 08:
http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/pdf13_epode_con
gres_2008.pdf
4. VIASANO in Belgium : http://www.epode-european-
network.com/en/ressources-center/viasano-in-belgium.html
Little cousin of the French EPODE programme, VIASANOs
objective is to prevent childhood obesity as well as cardiovascular
risk in adults.

79

5. THAO Salud Infantil in Spain: http://thaoweb.com/
6. PAIDEIATROFI in Greece:
The PAIDEIATROFI programme specifically aims at educating the
population of the pilot cities towards a healthy and balanced diet,
with the objective of reducing childhood obesity rates in Greece.
a. General presentation, launching: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/pdf18_informatio
n_paideiatrofi.pdf
b. General Press Kit: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/pdf19_press%20k
it_i_general.pdf
c. Physical Activity Press Kit: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/background/pdf/pdf20_press%20k
it_ii_physical%20activity.pdf
(SOURCE: All these materials are available from the EEN Ressources
Center web: http://www.epode-european-network.com/en/ressources-
center.html)
In which
languages
are the tools
available
1+2: Eng / 3: Fr / 4: Fr, Ne, Eng / 5: Spa / 6a: Eng, 6b+c: Gr
What is the
format
1, 2, 3,: PDF / 4: html / 5: html / 6: PDF
Coordinator
of the
project

EPODE EUROPEAN NETWORK COORDINATING TEAM
een@proteines.fr
Contact
person for
further
information

Christophe Roy
EPODE International Coordination Unit
Protines Company
Project
Website and
/ or links to
relevant
material that
can be
linked to the
HEPCOM
learning
platform.
All EPODE programmes are based on and adapted from the same
methodology.
EPODE in France: www.epode.fr
VIASANO in Belgium: www.visano.be
THAO in Spain: www.thaoweb.com
PAIDEIATROFI in Greece: www.paideiatrofi.gr
EEN Book of Recommendations: http://www.epode-european-
network.com/images/stories/EEN_Recommendations.pdf

80

Any
additional
comments
from the
HEPCOM
partner
Today, the EPODE methodology is global, present on 3 continents,
implemented in more than 8 countries, 500 towns and more than 20,000,
000 people are involved. It has been scaled up to 226 towns and cities in
France. In 2007 it was adapted for Belgium (VIASANO) and Spain (THAO).
The methodology has since been adapted to PAIDEIATROFI in Greece
(2008) and has inspired JOGG in the Netherlands (2010) as well as the
national movements Healthy Weight Communities in Scotland (2010)
and I am living healthy, too (SETS) in Romania (2011). It is an essential
component of the governmental public health plans to prevent obesity at
the community level in South Australia (OPAL by EPODE, 2009) and
Mexico (EPODE-5 PASOS, 2009).
Source: http://www.epode-international-network.com/what-is-
ein/background/from-epode-to-een


81


6.14 GRADIENT

Question Description
Title of EU Project Gradient
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
The main objectives were to develop a consensus-based
European framework to monitor and evaluate public health
policies, to assess if and why children and families from different
socio-economic groups respond and act differently to public policy
interventions, to make a review of protective factors for the
health of children and young people and their families focusing on
social capital, and to analyze different welfare regimes and
general policies in different EU countries and compare its impact
on families and children.
The specific objectives are for the findings and results of the
GRADIENT project to encourage policy makers and practitioners
across the EU to adopt such measures, to ensure that European
children and young people get the right start to a healthy life and
can live in and contribute to prosperous, cohesive and sustainable
European societies.
Theoretical
background of the
project
Information was not available on the website
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Policy makers and practitioners across the EU
What is the subject
of the project
Identifying measures that could be taken to level-out the socio-
economic gradients in health among children and young people in
the EU.
Activities in the
project and
methodology

Gradient (2009-2012) was a collaborative research project
involving 12 institutions (universities, research institutes and
public health institutes) from all over Europe.
Further information about the activities and methodology was not
to be found on the website
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been developed
in the project
The GRADIENT developed a; Gradient Evaluation Lens, that
highlights key factors which policy makers and practitioners must
consider to ensure measures are gradient friendly.
The outcomes of the four research components have been
synthesized and brought together into a book The Right Start to
a Healthy Life which includes a set of policy recommendations
82

widely disseminated to policy makers and professionals in a user-
friendly format across the EU.

Download The Right Start to a Healthy Life
Download The Gradient Evaluation Framework
Download Gradient Evaluation Framework Application
Download paper: Does neighbourhood social capital aid in
levelling the social gradient in the health and well-being of
children and adolescents? A literature review (by Vyncke et al.,
2013)
In which languages
are the tools
available
English, other information was not available on the website
What is the format Accessible tools are available on the website: http://health-
gradient.eu/other-research/gradient/
Where and how have
the tools been tested
Information was not available on the website
Evaluation of tools Information was not available on the website
Coordinator of the
project
Eurohealthnet
Other partners in the
project

BZgA (Federal Centre for Health Education Germany)
Embaetti landlaeknis (Directorate of Health - Iceland)
EuroHealthNet (Belgium),
KI (Karolinska Institutet - Sweden)
NIGZ (Netherlands Institute for Health Promotion)
NIPH (National Institue of Public Health - Czech Republic)
UBerg (University of Bergen - Norway)
UGent (University of Gent - Belgium)
ULL (University of La Laguna Spain)
UoB (University of Brighton - UK)
VIGeZ (the Flemish Institute for Health Promotion - Belgium)
ZZVMS (The Institute of Public Health Murska Sobota Slovenia)
Contact person for
further information
www.eurohealthnet.eu
Project Website and /
or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.

www.health-gradient.eu
http://health-gradient.eu/other-research/gradient/
Download The Right Start to a Healthy Life
Download The Gradient Evaluation Framework
Download Gradient Evaluation Framework Application
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner
The three projects Determine, Drivers and Gradient are all
EuroHealthNet projects and are quite difficult to separate. They
appear to be closely connected. Gradient seems to be the first
project, leading to Determine, and Drivers is the most recent
project. Only few findings have emerged.

83


6.15 Drivers

Question Description
Title of EU Project
Addressing the strategic Determinants to Reduce health Inequity
Via Early childhood, Realising fair employment, and Social
protection (DRIVERS)
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

The main objective is to promote health equity through policy
and practice in early childhood development, employment &
working conditions, and income & social protection.
The specific objective is to bring everything together and present
a coherent picture of how policies can be implemented to protect
and promote health equity.

Advocating health equity effectively:

- Synthesise existing knowledge, and build upon this using
existing or previous examples of advocacy and expertise
from a broad range of stakeholders
- Prepare a broad range of advocacy messages and test these
on targets of advocacy
- Develop a process for evaluating and reflecting on the
process of implementation and produce a final advocacy
strategy publication and toolkit
Case studies and recommendations:
- Establish case-studies to test knowledge related to early
childhood, fair employment, income and social protection,
and test developed methods in different real-life contexts.
- Evaluate the extent to which recommendations of the three
DRIVERS areas are applicable to the needs of different
population groups.
- Bring everything together and make recommendations for
policy, research and practice effectively addressing the
strategic determinants of health and reduce health-
inequalities.
Theoretical
background of the
project
This final and important stage of DRIVERS brings together the
knowledge on early childhood, fair employment, income and social
protection, and advocacy for health equity, and test it in real-life
situations across Europe. In doing so, DRIVERS will ensure that its
findings are relevant and grounded in existing realities, moving
confidently from the realm of science and theory and into practice.
First, proven methodologies will be used to explore the relationship
between the mechanisms by which specific policies and actions
generate effects on the social determinants of health, and health
84

outcomes. Second, case-studies will provide tailored explanations
about what works for whom in different situations. Overall, the aim
is to bring everything together and present a coherent picture of
how policies can be implemented to protect and promote health
equity. A final element involves evaluating the methodologies by
which research takes place in DRIVERS areas, and developing
recommendations for future research and practice.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Decision makers, stakeholders and relevant audiences to support
and implement actions that contributes to improving health equity.
What is the subject
of the project
Focus on three of the key drivers to reduce health inequities:
Early child development;
Employment and the work environment;
Income, welfare and social protection
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Methodology: Partners will contribute to case-studies, testing
methodologies and applying participatory approaches to ensure
that outcomes are grounded in socio-economic realities.
EuroHealthNet, with expertise in co-ordinating EU projects and in
EU policy issues, will manage the project and lead on the advocacy
research and dissemination. Research outcomes will contribute to
meeting the EU 2020 targets and related flagship initiatives.
- Activities: Carry out a large literature search using
systematic review methods and prepare written reports on
the state of the art
- Conduct Advocacy Mapping Exercises at different levels to
show opportunities for influencing policy
- Hold an Advocacy Consultation Workshop to gather the
views of a diverse group of stakeholders on key issues of
interest
- Test initial findings of the work on targets of advocacy, carry
out advocacy case-studies to test initial methods, and
develop a graphical toolkit to aid potential advocates of
health equity.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
A report and three seminars will help disseminate findings to a
wide variety of audiences, ensuring that DRIVERS has maximum
impact. Publications will be available by subscribing on the website:

With EU project and policy expertise, EuroHealthNet co-ordinates
the project and leads on advocacy and dissemination
A tool (an app) to evaluate policies for equity measures:
http://www.gradient-evaluation.eu/

85

In which languages
are the tools
available

The website is in English
What is the format

Text to be downloaded from the website. Network and newsletter
to alert future publications produced by DRIVERS
Where and how
have the tools been
tested

The tools of applied and new methods have been tested in case-
studies across Europe:
The Advocacy Consultation Workshop took place in Brussels in July
2013. This was an opportunity to build upon the literature review,
and the Discussion Paper prepared for the event.
Work continues on the advocacy mapping exercise, and the
academic and grey literature review which is nearing completion.

A meeting took place in Brussels in May 2013 to discuss initial
ideas for case-studies. This was an opportunity to develop shared
approaches and processes by which work on early childhood
development, employment & working conditions, income & social
protection, and advocacy can link with the case-studies.
Case-studies are currently being selected from across Europe. One
case-study has commenced in Switzerland. More information will
be posted shortly
Evaluation of tools

The tools will be based on self-evaluation as a part of DRIVERS
aims:
A final element of DRIVERS involves evaluating the methodologies,
by which research takes place in DRIVERS areas, and developing
recommendations for future research and practice
Coordinator of the
project
DRIVERS is coordinated by EuroHealthNet
Other partners in
the project
The research will be undertaken by a consortium of research bodies
University College London, Duesseldorf University and the CHESS
(Swedish Centre for Health Equity Studies) - in partnership with
organisations representing the public health sector, civil society
and business (EuroHealthNet, Eurochild, Business in the
Community, and the European Anti-Poverty Network). Affiliated
research network partners are the Department of Health Sciences
at the Mid-Sweden University, Norwegian Social Research (NOVA),
and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA).
Moreover, other important organisations are involved in the
Project: The Netherlands Institute for Health Promotion and
Disease Prevention (NiGZ); Public Health Wales (PHW); The
Institute of Preventive Medicine, Environmental and Occupational
Health (PROLEPSIS); The Norwegian Directorate of Health; The
Sefton Primary Care Trust is based in Merseyside in the North West
of England; the University of La Laguna; The National Institute for
Health and Welfare (THL) in Finland; Northern Ireland Early Years;
Children in Scotland; the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work -
Babes-Bolyai University Cluj in Romania; the Family, Child, Youth
Association in Hungary; The Centre for Artistic and Pedagogical
Training (SCHEDIA) in Greece.

86

Contact person for
further information

http://health-gradient.eu/contact-us/
Project Website and
/ or links to
relevant material
that can be linked
to the HEPCOM
learning platform.

http://eurohealthnet.eu/research/drivers

http://health-gradient.eu/
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner

DRIVERS (2012-2014) is a three-year research project funded by
the 7th Framework Programme
The three projects Determine, drivers and gradient are all
EuroHealthNet projects and are quite difficult to separate. They
appear to be closely connected. Gradient seems to be the first
project, leading to Determine, and Drivers is the most recent
project. Only few findings have emerged.

87


6.16 HCSC

Question Description
Title of EU Project

Healthy Children in Sound Communities
http://www.hcsc.eu/
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

A Dutch - German crossborder community setting approach to
prevent sedentary lifestyles in childhood

The purpose of the "Healthy Children in Sound Communities"
project (HCSC-EU) is to transfer / diffuse and implement the
strategy, structure and experiences of the Dutch-German cross-
border project to four other EU countries (CZ, PL, IT, GB) as well
as to other provinces / states / cities outside the cross-border
region of the Netherlands and Germany (NL, DE).

http://www.hcsc.eu/index.php?page_id=12
Theoretical
background of the
project

Public authorities (school boards and health boards of the involved
municipalities) and partners from civil society (local sport clubs
and organisations, health-centres, etc.) will build local,
community-based, multi-actor network to combine their individual
efforts and programmes for a commonly agreed health-enhanced
PE/PA-programme for local children, to promote and implement
more opportunities for all to engage in an active lifestyle as a
means to counteract physical inactivity and overweight / obesity.
Target groups
Immediate
Short term
Long term

Children and adolescents
What is the subject
of the project

Health and Physical Activity
Activities in the
project and
methodology

http://www.hcsc.eu/index.php?page_id=6
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project

The results and experiences (good and bad) are used to develop
specially tailored health-enhanced multi-actor-programmes for the
partnership of schools and sport clubs on community level in each
of the participating EU-municipalities for region / nation-wide daily
PA programmes.

Explicit tools are not yet available however.
In which languages
are the tools
available

Unknown
88

Where and how
have the tools been
tested

Will be evaluated during the project
Evaluation of tools

see above
Coordinator of the
project

Willibald Gebhardt Institut
Gladbecker Strae 180
45141 Essen
Germany

Tel no: +49 201 183 76-11 (office )
+49 201 183 76-19
Fax: +49 201 183 7624
Other partners in
the project

http://www.uni-osnabrueck.de/startseite.html
http://www.eads.de/
http://www.nisb.nl/
http://www.cuscz.cz/uvod.html
http://www.ftvs.cuni.cz/eng/
http://www.youthsporttrust.org/
http://www.fiaf.it/
http://www.awf.poznan.pl/
http://www.youth-sport.net/
http://www.wgi.de/
http://www.dsj.de/
Contact person for
further information

Willibald Gebhardt Institut
Gladbecker Strae 180
45141 Essen
Germany
Tel no: +49 201 183 76-11 (office)
+49 201 183 76-19
Fax: +49 201 183 7624
http://www.hcsc.eu/index.php?page_id=4
Project Website and
/ or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.

http://www.hcsc.eu/
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner

A final report of the project does not yet exist.

89


6.17 Equity Channel

Question Description
Title of EU Project Equity Channel
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

The Equity Channels purpose is to help connect interested
institutions, organisations and individuals from all backgrounds and
communities across the globe that is working for action on the
social determinants of health.
The aim is to stimulate and support changes in policies at
international, national and local levels, and to help bring about the
changes that will mean greater health equity for all.
Theoretical
background of the
project
"(The) toxic combination of bad policies, economics, and politics is,
in large measure, responsible for the fact that a majority of people
in the world do not enjoy the good health that is biologically
possible."
The WHO Commission report on the Social Determinants of Health
(CSDH), called 'Closing the Gap in a Generation' shows the
widespread health inequalities that exist between and within
countries. The report shows a clear link between quality of life and
health across all people and communities, known as the health
gradient.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Institutions, organisations and individuals from all backgrounds and
communities across the globe working for action on the social
determinants of health.
What is the subject
of the project
Social determinants of health
Activities in the
project and
methodology
The Equity Channel facilitates the work of the International
Collaboration on Social Determinants of Health through the use of
innovative communication tools for sharing knowledge and
evidence, and to develop strong partnerships which can help
influence EU policy processes and work towards better health for
all.
The Equitychannel.net community is an interactive part of the
website which allows you to share your knowledge and ideas with
others. This gives you the opportunity to make your voice heard,
whether you are working on social issues, the environment, trade
or technology. The debate about how EU policies can affect health
equity must involve all the areas that can influence health. The
Equitychannel.net community allows this to happen online.

90

The Equity Channel is supported by an international collaboration
including the WHO, Business in the Community and the
Department of Health.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
This project can be described as a link to find valuable knowledge
and resources, as the website offers a source of information on
social inclusion & health equity.
The website has the following sections where different types of
information can be found:
1 Whats new?: News on conferences, reports, seminars and
campaigns
2 Social Inclusion & Health Equity: Useful definitions
3 PROGRESS Programme: Information on the PROGRESS
programme
4 Tools: Presents the Gradient Evaluation Framework tool
(more information below)
5 Events: Events related to health are presented
6 Publication: Gathers publications at international and
European level on social inclusion and health equity.
Also includes the latest publications from Equitychannel.net,
such as:
- Focusing on Obesity Through a Health Equity Lens
- Demography Report 2010: Older, more numerous and diverse
Europeans
- Chronic Diseases and Health Equity
In the section, tools, the only tool available is the Gradient
Evaluation:
GEF (Gradient Evaluation Framework)
GEF is a European action-oriented policy tool that provides a
framework for the evaluation of policy actions at each of the key
stages of the policy cycle. It includes a set of principles, procedures
and mechanisms that can be applied to:
- Public health policies that comprise a complex mix of
actions, including programmes;
- Specific health policy actions (e.g. nutrition programmes in
schools);
- Non-health policies that have a potential impact on the
social determinants of health inequalities (e.g. education,

91

employment, and agriculture sectors).
A tool that can be applied to different policy contexts including
upstream (targets circumstances producing adverse health
behaviours, such as the determinants of health ingrained in
structural inequalities of society); mid-stream (affects working
conditions or targeted lifestyle measures) and/or downstream
(attempts to change adverse health behaviours and lifestyles
directly).
However, GEF places a stronger focus on upstream actions which
can have a greater impact on addressing the determinants of social
inequalities in health, and thus levelling-out the gradient in health
inequalities.
In addition to issues of evaluation, GEF also aims to support,
advocate, and sensitise its users regarding the need for action to
reduce health and social inequalities, and make progress towards
levelling-out the gradient in health among children, young people,
and their families.
The Equity Channel Community: Its purpose is to help people to
connect with other interested people across the globe who want to
see action on health equity. All members can exchange their ideas
and publish their contributions related to the social factors of
health.
http://community.equitychannel.net/
In which languages
are the tools
available
English
What is the format

ATTENTION: to access the GEF (Gradient Evaluation Framework)
tools a user and a password are needed.
http://www.equitychannel.net/tools#part-1
Would it be possible to have the password to enter?
Where and how
have the tools been
tested
MISSING
Evaluation of tools MISSING
Coordinator of the
project

EuroHealthNet links the bodies in the states and regions associated
with the EU responsible for public health, health promotion and
health determinants. Our mission is to improve health and equity
for people in those areas. We do so by supporting projects and
policy development together with our members and EU institutions;
by exchanging information and by communications in and beyond
our network.
92

EuroHealthNet is responsible for developing the Equity Channel, as
a way to help the partners in this international collaboration
communicate with interested people and bodies. We are also
working to improve EU policies in relevant fields, to inform and
involve other bodies in partnerships, and to develop innovative
approaches in support of this.
Other partners in
the project

MISSING
Contact person for
further information
European Commission
DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion
B-1049 Brussels
BELGIUM
Call the free phone number 00800 6 7 8 9 10 11 from anywhere
in the EU. Find out more
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=2&langId=en&acronym
=contact
Project Website/
and / or links to
relevant material
that can be linked
to the HEPCOM
learning platform
http://www.equitychannel.net/
http://www.equitychannel.net/tools#part-1
Would it be possible to have the password to enter?


93


6.18 IMAGE

Question Description
Title of EU
Project
Development and Implementation of a European Guideline and
Training Standards for Diabetes Prevention (IMAGE)
Main and
specific
objective(s) of
the project
General objectives
The project aims to help European healthcare professionals deliver
efficient preventive intervention on type 2 diabetes.
Key objectives
Effective and immediate primary prevention is essential to reduce the
epidemic in type 2 diabetes. The IMAGE project will help to address
this through the development of:
1- European practice-orientated guidelines for the primary
prevention of type 2 diabetes for improving information and
knowledge about public health strategies to prevent type 2
diabetes and its co-morbidities
2- A European curriculum for training prevention managers to
enhance the ability of healthcare professionals to respond
swiftly to the drastic increase of type 2 diabetes and its burden
to society
3- European standards for quality control in order to monitor and
report these systematically in the member-states and at EU
level using comparative data
4- A European e-health training portal for prevention managers to
improve availability of evidence-based health information for
healthcare professionals
Theoretical
background of
the project
The Foundations for the IMAGE project: DE-PLAN and the Vienna
Declaration
The IMAGE project has evolved from the DE-PLAN project (Diabetes
in Europe - Prevention using Lifestyle, Physical Activity and Nutritional
intervention), a European Union (EU) public health research project
that commenced in 2004. Led by Prof. Jaakko Tuomilehto (University
of Helsinki), the DE-PLAN objective is to develop the structures for a
European prevention management concept which can be implemented
in clinical practice. This concept is currently being tested in pilot
projects funded by the Commission of the European Communities,
Directorate C - Public Health. The DE-PLAN project will conclude in
2007, when the results related to the efficient identification of subjects
at high risk of type 2 diabetes in the community will be presented. The
DE-Plan project will also assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of
translating current research knowledge into existing healthcare
systems.
The concepts for prevention management were discussed at the EU
Conference on Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes, Vienna, April 2006.
94

During the conference, the Austrian EU Presidency highlighted the
prevention of type 2 diabetes and its complications as the priority
topics for health during its presidency in 2006. The results of the
expert discussions during the conference formed the Vienna
Declaration, which comprises the main findings and recommendations
on all areas related to the implementation of diabetes prevention and
management in tackling the burden of diabetes at EU level.
The Vienna Declaration was presented at the informal conference of
Health Ministers at the formal Council in June 2006.
Another milestone in showing the political awareness for the growing
diabetes epidemic was the UN-Resolution on Diabetes in December
2006 which states that a non-communicable disease such as Diabetes
may as much threaten the worlds public health as infectious diseases,
e.g. HIV, tuberculosis or malaria.
The IMAGE project: Achieving European standards of implementation
The DE-PLAN project forms the foundations for the IMAGE project. The
IMAGE project will expand on the prevention management concepts
already being proven by the DE-PLAN, to create a European-wide
framework for the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short
term
- Long
term
The primary target group consists of policy makers, administrative
decision makers, and professional practitioners working in the
targeted settings. The project worked closely together with this group
from the beginning.
During the trial-phase, training was provided to professional
practitioners as to how to apply and work actively with the promising
practices from the project.
The secondary target group consists of children, teenagers and their
families. This group was especially involved during the trial- period
together with the professional practitioners.
What is the
subject of the
project
The overall objective of the IMAGE project is to improve the ability to
prevent type 2 diabetes in Europe.
Activities in the
project and
methodology
The IMAGE project will establish European intervention standards for
type 2 diabetes, primary prevention programmes and comprehensive
healthcare professional education programmes. These will be achieved
through
- the development of practice-orientated guidelines for diabetes
prevention
- a European training programme for healthcare professionals to
deliver preventive intervention
- European standards for quality control
- a European e-health training portal for prevention managers


95

Description of
available and
accessible tools
(or
deliverables)
that have been
developed in
the project
Deliverable:
European guidelines for the prevention of type 2 diabetes (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006309_36__anla
ge_komplett.pdf
Prevention Modules
- PREDIAS Programme
Political Statements
- Vienna Declaration on Diabetes
- UN - Resolution on Diabetes
- European Parliament Written Declaration
Guidelines and Diagnosis Criteria
- Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes
- The IDF consensus worldwide definition of the metabolic
syndrome
- Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes mellitus (ADA)
IMAGE Newsletter
- IMAGE Newsletter No 1 Nov 2007
- IMAGE Newsletter No 2 Feb 2008
- IMAGE Newsletter No 3 July 2008
- IMAGE Newsletter No 4 March 2009
- IMAGE Newsletter No 5 September 2009
- IMAGE Newsletter No 6 March 2010
IMAGE Reports
- IMAGE Intermediate Report February 2009
In which
languages are
the tools
available
English
What is the
format
Texts to be downloaded from the website
Where and how
have the tools
been tested
The PoHeFa project included a trial-phase, where 12 local communities
in the six participating countries were offered coaching processes
based on the tools from the project.
Evaluation of
tools
Not specified
Coordinator of
the project
Technische Universitt Dresden, Medizinische Fakultt Carl Gustav
Carus Fetscherstrae 74
01062 Dresden
Germany
Tel: +49 351 458 2715
Fax: +49 351 458 8703
Project Leader: Peter Schwarz
E-mail: pschwarz@rcs.urz.tu-dresden.de
96

Other partners
in the project

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens , Greece
Universite Paris-Nord , France
Fundacin para la eSalud, Spain
Deutsches Institut fr Ernhrungsforschung Potsdam-Rehbrcke,
Germany
Technische Universitt Dresden, Institut fr Medizinische Informatik
und Biometrie, Germany
Peninsula Medical School, United Kingdom
Kansanterveyslaitos, Finland
Helsingin Yliopisto, Finland
International Diabetes Federation - European Region (Gluco-Forum),
Belgium
Agiellonian University Medical College, Poland
Hochschule Niederrhein - Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences,
Germany
Forschungsinstitut der Diabetes Akademie Mergentheim, Germany
Associao Protectora dos Diabticos de Portugal (Portuguese
Diabetes Association), Portugal
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Herz- und Diabeteszentrum Nordrhein-Westphalen, Germany
INSTRUCT Aktiengesellschaft, Germany
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen, Germany
Nationales Aktionsforum Diabetes mellitus, Germany
University of Oslo, Norway
Universittsklinik fr Innere Medizin, St. Johann Hospital
SalzburgParacelsus Medical Private U., Austria
Alexandrov University Hospital, Bulgaria
Finnish Diabetes Association, Finland
Vlaamse Diabetes Vereniging vzw, Belgium
Hanusch Hospital, Austria
Vestiche Caritas-Kliniken Gmbh, Germany
Doc International Ltd, Latvia
Contact person
for further
information

Project Leader: Peter Schwarz
E-mail: pschwarz@rcs.urz.tu-dresden.de
Technische Universitt Dresden, Medizinische Fakultt Carl Gustav
Carus
Project Website
and/or links to
relevant
material that
can be linked to
the HEPCOM
learning
platform.
http://www.image-project.eu
Scientific information:
European guidelines for the prevention of type 2 diabetes (P)
Prevention module PREDIAS programme:
http://www.image-project.eu/pdf/PRAEDIAS.pdf
IMAGE prevention toolkit for healthcare workers
http://www.idf.org/sites/default/files/IMAGE%2520Toolkit.pdf



97


6.19 TEENAGE

Question Description
Title of EU
Project
The prevention of socio-economic inequalities in health behavior in
adolescents in Europe (TEENAGE)
Main and specific
objective(s) of
the project
The project aims to formulate policy recommendations to prevent
socio-economic inequalities linked to the health behaviour of European
adolescents.
The Teenage project aimed to re-analyze the datasets of a selection of
intervention studies conducted in Europe on socio-economic position
(SEP) to investigate whether differential effects by SEP exist.
Furthermore, Teenage aimed to assess the transferability of
interventions that were effective among low SEP groups in one
European country to other European countries.
Specific objectives are:
1.To develop evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to prevent
physical inactivity, poor diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption in
adolescents in lower socio-economic groups across Europe
2. To assess the transferability of effective interventions in lower
socio-economic groups from source countries to other countries
throughout Europe
3. To develop policy recommendations for the prevention of socio-
economic inequalities in these health behaviours in adolescents in
lower socio-economic groups in Europe
4. To disseminate the results and to develop a European clearing-
house on the prevention of the inequalities in unhealthy behaviour in
adolescents in Europe
Theoretical
background of
the project

Smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet and alcohol consumption
contribute by at least 30-50% to socio-economic inequalities in
health. These unhealthy behaviours mainly develop during
adolescence. A large number of studies have been conducted with the
aim of investigating the effectiveness of interventions to improve
health-related behaviour in adolescents. Given the potentially
confounding effect of socio-economic status, many studies have
incorporated and statistically adjusted analyses for indicators of socio-
economic status. These studies provide a pragmatic opportunity to
investigate the differential effectiveness of interventions across socio-
economic groups. Re-analysis of existing interventions stratified by
socio-economic status is a relatively quick and cost-effective
approach, through which it can be learned which interventions best
contribute to the prevention of socio-economic inequalities in health-
related behaviours in adolescents.


98

Target groups
Immediate
(Short and long
term)
Adolescents
What is the
subject of the
project
Prevention of socio-economic inequalities in health behavior
Nutrition within Lifestyle
Poverty & social exclusion within Socio-economic factors
Inequalities within Socio-economic factors
Adolescents within Target groups
Non-communicable diseases
Activities in the
project and
methodology
The project will re-analyse existing interventions aimed at preventing
physical inactivity, poor diet, smoking, and excessive alcohol
consumption in European adolescents in lower socio-economic groups,
and assess the transferability of the interventions throughout Europe.
Method
1. Two systematic literature reviews concerning physical activity (PA)
and diet conducted, to find:
- high quality European studies
- with clear overall effects
- not yet reported effect by SES
- measures on SES collected
2. Selected 3 school-based programmes for each behaviour
3. Contacted principal investigators for the studies
4. Re-analyses were conducted by either original authors or the
TEENAGE-group as close to the original analyses as possible
Description of
available and
accessible tools
(or deliverables)
that have been
developed in the
project
A report comparing the results of SES-stratified analyses of different
types of adolescent alcohol consumption interventions in Europe & a
scientific paper of the results of SES-stratified analyses of different
types of alcohol interventions in adolescents in Europe (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006323_d6d_and
_7d.pdf
Post-graduate training material (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006323_d12.pdf
Report on integrating equity in health-promotion interventions in
adolescence (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006323_d2.pdf
Report on policy recommendations based on the reports on
effectiveness of interventions and on the knowledge of effective
interventions transferability (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006323_d10.pdf

99

Reports of each of the five target countries on the applicability and
transferability of existing interventions from source countries to these
specific countries (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006323_d8.pdf
In which
languages are
the tools
available
English
What is the
format
PDF
Coordinator of
the project
Erasmuc MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam
Erasmus MC - Office AE/112
PO-BOX 2040
3000 Rotterdam
Netherlands
Tel: +31-10-4088220
Fax: +31-10-4638474

Project Leader:
Frank Van Lenthe
E-mail: f.vanlenthe@erasmusmc.nl
Other partners in
the project

Ghent University, Belgium
Universit degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale "A. Avogadro", Italy
University of Oslo, Norway
Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Contact person
for further
information
Project Leader: Frank Van Lenthe
E-mail: f.vanlenthe@erasmusmc.nl
Project Website
and/or links to
relevant material
that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.
The website of the project www.teenageproject.eu is no longer active
Any additional
comments from
the HEPCOM
partner
Policy recommendations
100


6.20 European Portal for action in Health Inequalities

Question Description
Title of EU Project European Portal for Action on Health Inequalities
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

The European Portal for Action on Health Inequalities aims to
provide visitors with practical and useful information on health
inequities (policies, projects, tools and resources) and to give them
opportunities to promote their own work.
Theoretical
background of the
project
Health inequities are preventable and unjust differences in health
status between different population groups. They are shaped by
the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age
the so-called social determinants of health. Health inequalities are
present in all European countries and evidence shows that health
inequalities are currently widening.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Member States, regions and other stakeholders
What is the subject
of the project
Health inequities
Activities in the
project and
methodology
The European Portal for Action on Health Inequalities is an
exhaustive source of information on health inequalities at EU,
national and regional level, on social determinants of health and on
Health in All Policies. It offers visitors practical and useful
information and gives them opportunities to promote their own
work.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
This project can be described as a link to find valuable knowledge
and resources, as the website offers an exhaustive source of
information on health inequalities at EU, national and regional
level, on social determinants of health and on Health in All
Policies.
The website has the following sections where different
types of information can be found:
1-About Health Inequalities
In this section, information about health inequalities in and outside
the EU, at national and at regional level can be found.
This section of the website gives an overview of the most important
and up to date information related to health inequalities and the
social determinants of health. It gives a clear definition of health
inequalities, and provides the latest data, indicators, information,
and reviews that are being, or have been undertaken. It also sets
out definitions of the most common terms used.

101

2-Policies
In this section of the website, information on the concept Health in
All Policies (HIAP) and practical examples of projects that aim to
advance the implementation of the HIAP approach in Europe can be
found.
Secondly, there is access to a policy database, which consists of
EU, national, regional or local level policies addressing health
inequalities.

3-Projects
In this section, users can find examples of projects, programmes,
or other kinds of initiatives that aim to tackle health inequalities at
EU, national, regional or local level. All these initiatives have been
added to the Good Practice Database. Information can be searched
for by country, level of implementation, area of work (e.g. ageing,
domestic violence, and education), target group (e.g. children,
elderly, migrants) setting (e.g. city, school, and hospital), and key
word.

4-Tools
This section acts as a source of information on the different tools -
methods or methodologies - that are available and that can be
used to address health inequalities. The tools are divided into the
following sections:

- Health Impact Assessment
- Health Equity Audit
- Toolkits
- Capacity Building
- Training & Courses
5- Resources
This section offers access to different resources that focus on
health inequalities and the social determinants of health, which are
classified in: publications, presentations, videos, blogs, newsletters
and other websites.

6- Events
This section presents an overview of events addressing health
inequalities or related issues.
In which languages
are the tools
available
The majority of the information is in English, but there is also
information in other languages (policies, national projects etc).
What is the format Different formats depending on the information consulted: online
information, PDFs, videos, blogs, websites
Where and how
have the tools been
tested
This portal gathers information from projects, publications,
research, organizations, national authorities and others, but does
not create new information.

102

Evaluation of tools This information is not available, as this website gathers already
existing information, and does not specify whether these tools have
been evaluated.
Coordinator of the
project

EuroHealthNet
EuroHealthNet is a not-for-profit network of regional and national
agencies responsible and accountable for health promotion, public
health and disease prevention in Europe.
Its aim is to help improve health and health equity within and
between EU Member States.
This is done by supporting projects and policy development
together with its members and EU institutions; by exchanging
information and by communication in and beyond their network.
Nowadays, EuroHealthNet has 35 member or partner agencies in
27 European countries, thereby constituting a valuable platform for
information, advice, policy and advocacy on health and equity
issues at EU level.
Other partners in
the project

Contact person for
further information
Yoline Kuipers - y.kuipers@eurohealthnet.eu
Project Website and
/ or links to
relevant material
that can be linked
to the HEPCOM
learning platform.
http://www.health-inequalities.eu/
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner
There is a section that I personally find very useful and interesting.
The section presents Health Inequality profiles of the different EU
countries, specifying:
- Country profile;
- Policy reponses;
- Good practices: An overview of projects and initiatives
addressing health inequality issues that are currently taking
place or that have successfully been finalized;
- Key actors: An overview of key actors in the country
working on health inequalities issues;
- Key resources: An overview of relevant documents
addressing health inequality issues in each country.
The country profiles can be found here: About HI Health
Inequalities At National Level HI in your country

103


6.21 Equity Channel

Question Description
Title of EU Project Equity Channel
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

The Equity Channels purpose is to help connect interested
institutions, organisations and individuals from all backgrounds and
communities across the globe, that are working for action on the
social determinants of health.
The aim is to stimulate and support changes in policies at
international, national and local levels, and to help bring about the
changes that will mean greater health equity for all.

Theoretical
background of the
project
"(The) toxic combination of bad policies, economics, and politics is,
in large measure, responsible for the fact that a majority of people
in the world do not enjoy the good health that is biologically
possible."
The WHO Commission report on the Social Determinants of Health
(CSDH), called 'Closing the Gap in a Generation' shows the
widespread health inequalities that exist between and within
countries. The report shows a clear link between quality of life and
health across all people and communities, known as the health
gradient.

Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Institutions, organisations and individuals from all backgrounds and
communities across the globe working for action on the social
determinants of health.
What is the subject
of the project
Social determinants of health
Activities in the
project and
methodology
The Equity Channel facilitates the work of the International
Collaboration on Social Determinants of Health through the use of
innovative communication tools for sharing knowledge and
evidence, and to develop strong partnerships which can help
influence EU policy processes and work towards better health for
all.
The Equitychannel.net community is an interactive part of the
website which allows you to share your knowledge and ideas with
others. This will give you the opportunity to make your voice
heard, whether you are working on social issues, the environment,
trade or technology. The debate about how EU policies can affect
health equity must involve all the areas that can influence health.
104

The Equitychannel.net community allows this to happen online.
The Equity Channel is supported by an international collaboration
including the WHO, Business in the Community and the
Department of Health.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project
This project can be described as a link to find valuable knowledge
and resources, as the website offers a source of information on
social inclusion & health equity.
The website has the following sections where different types of
information can be found:
1 Whats new?: News on conferences, reports, seminars and
campaigns
2 Social Inclusion & Health Equity: Useful definitions
3 PROGRESS Programme: Information on the PROGRESS
programme
4 Tools: Presents the Gradient Evaluation Framework tool
(more information below)
5 Events: Events related to health are presented
6 Publication: Gathers publications at international and
European level on social inclusion and health equity.
Also includes the latest publications from Equitychannel.net,
such as:
o Focusing on Obesity Through a Health Equity Lens
o Demography Report 2010: Older, more numerous
and diverse Europeans
o Chronic Diseases and Health Equity
In the section, tools, the only tool available is the Gradient
Evaluation: GEF (Gradient Evaluation Framework).
GEF is a European action-orientated policy tool that provides a
framework for the evaluation of policy actions at each of the key
stages of the policy cycle. It includes a set of principles, procedures
and mechanisms that can be applied to:
- Public health policies that comprise a complex mix of
actions, including programmes;
- Specific health policy actions (e.g. nutrition programmes in
schools);
- Non-health policies with a potential to have an impact the
social determinants of health inequalities (e.g. education,

105

employment, and agriculture sectors).
A tool that can be applied to different policy contexts including
upstream (targets the circumstances that produce adverse health
behaviours, such as the determinants of health that are ingrained
in structural inequalities of society); mid-stream (affects working
conditions or targeted lifestyle measures) and/or downstream
(attempts to change adverse health behaviours and lifestyles
directly).
However, GEF places a greater focus on upstream actions which
can have a greater impact on addressing the determinants of social
inequalities in health, and thus levelling-out the gradient in health
inequalities.
In addition to issues of evaluation, GEF also aims to support,
advocate, and sensitise its users regarding the need for action to
reduce health and social inequalities and make progress towards
levelling-out the gradient in health among children, young people
and their families.
The Equity Channel Community: Its purpose is to help people to
connect with other interested people across the globe who want to
see action on health equity. All members can exchange their ideas
and publish their contributions related to the social factors of
health.
http://community.equitychannel.net/
In which languages
are the tools
available
English
What is the format

ATTENTION: to access the GEF (Gradient Evaluation Framework)
tools a user and a password are needed.
http://www.equitychannel.net/tools#part-1
Would it be possible to have the password to enter?
Where and how
have the tools been
tested
MISSING
Evaluation of tools MISSING
Coordinator of the
project

EuroHealthNet links the bodies in the states and regions associated
with the EU responsible for public health, health promotion and
health determinants. Its mission is to improve health and equity for
people in those areas. This is done by supporting projects and
policy development together with our members and EU institutions;
by exchanging information and by communications in and beyond
our network.
106


EuroHealthNet is responsible for developing the Equity Channel as
a way to help the partners in this international collaboration to
communicate with interested people and bodies. We are also
working to improve EU policies in relevant fields, to inform and
involve other bodies in partnerships, and to develop innovative
approaches to support this.
Other partners in
the project

MISSING
Contact person for
further information
MISSING
Project Website/
and / or links to
relevant material
that can be linked
to the HEPCOM
learning platform
http://www.equitychannel.net/
http://www.equitychannel.net/tools#part-1

Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner


107


6.22 IMPALA

Question Description
Title of EU Project

IMPALA
Information taken from http://www.impala-eu.org/
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

IMPALA aims to identify, implement, and disseminate good
practice in the planning, financing, building, and managing of
local infrastructures for leisure-time physical activity. To gather
the information needed, IMPALA seeks to analyze national
policies, mechanisms and instruments used in the development of
infrastructures for leisure-time physical activity.
Theoretical
background of the
project

Not identified
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term

All citizens.

Three types of infrastructures for leisure-time physical activity are
distinguished:

- sports facilities (such as gyms, swimming pools, sports
grounds)
- leisure-time infrastructures providing specific opportunities
for sports and physical activity (such as parks,
playgrounds, and cycle paths)
- urban and natural space usable for sports and physical
activity (such as streets, public places, forests, beaches)
What is the subject
of the project

To develop and agree on good practice criteria for policies and
mechanisms for the development of infrastructures for leisure-
time physical activity, to disseminate and implement good
practice guidelines
Activities in the
project and
methodology

IMPALA aims to identify, implement and disseminate good
practice in the planning, financing, building, and managing of
local infrastructures for leisure-time physical activity. To gather
the information needed, IMPALA seeks to analyze national
policies, mechanisms and instruments used in the development of
infrastructures for leisure-time physical activity.
http://www.impala-eu.org/index.php?id=results
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project

Assessment of national policies.
http://www.impala-eu.org/index.php?id=results#article1

Agreement on good practice criteria.
http://www.impala-eu.org/fileadmin/user_upload/wp2_report.pdf

108

In which languages
are the tools
available

Czech, French, German, Portuguese
Where and how
have the tools been
tested

Qualitative interviews with experts and policy makers from 12
countries
Coordinator of the
project

Institute of Sport Science and Sport
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Project Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Alfred Rtten
T: +49 9131 85 25 000
F: +49 9131 85 25 002
E: impala(at)sport.uni-erlangen.de
W: www.impala-eu.org
http://www.impala-eu.org/index.php?id=contact
Other partners in
the project

Associated Partners
Austria: University of Vienna
Czech Republic: Palacky University, Olomouc
Denmark: University of Southern Denmark
Finland: University of Jyvskyl
France: University of Nancy
Germany: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Italy: University of Rome Foro Italico
Lithuania: Academy of Physical Education, Kaunas
Netherlands: TNO Quality of Life, Leiden
Norway: Oslo Universtiy College
Portugal: University of Porto
Spain: University of Extremadura
Collaborating Partners
Austria: Austrian Institute for School and Sport Facility
Development
Czech Republic: City of Olomouc
Denmark: City of Odense Traffic Department
Finland: Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities
France: Ministry of Sports
Germany: German Olympic Sports Federation
Italy: Censis Servizi, Acciari Consulting
Lithuania: Kaunas Municipality
Netherlands: VU University Medical Centre/EMGO institute &
Netherlands Institute for Sport and Physical Activity (NISB)
Norway: Directorate of Health, The Norwegian Public Roads
Administration
Spain: Regional Government of Extremadura
WHO European Centre for Environment and Health
Contact person for
further information

IMPALA Contact
Project Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Alfred Rtten
Institute of Sport Science and Sport
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
T +49 9131 85 25 000
F +49 9131 85 25 002
E impala@sport.uni-erlangen.de


109

Project Website and
/ or links to
relevant material
that can be linked
to the HEPCOM
learning platform.

http://www.impala-eu.org/
Assessment of national policies.
http://www.impala-eu.org/index.php?id=results#article1
Agreement on good practice criteria.
http://www.impala-eu.org/fileadmin/user_upload/wp2_report.pdf

Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner
Policy recommendations and best practice for physical activity
infrastructures.
110


6.23 Healthy Eco Life

Question Description
Title of EU Project

Healthy Eco Life

Information retrieved from:
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database.html?prjno=2009121
0
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

The overall objective of the project is to foster adoption of healthy
life styles among children in primary schools in urban areas of
Croatia and Slovenia.

The European Public Health Conference aims to contribute to the
improvement of public health in Europe by offering a means for
exchanging information and a platform for debate to researchers,
policy makers, and practitioners in the field of public health and
health services research as well as public health training and
education in Europe
Theoretical
background of the
project

Methodology of the programme will be based on EU best practices
in health promotion but complemented with the ecological
awareness aspect of health. Learning about health through
interactive group work in classes will be combined with practical
lessons provided in natural and rural contexts.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term

Children and Young People
What is the subject
of the project

Life-style change for children
Activities in the
project and
methodology

Not identified
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been developed
in the project

Best practice compendium en
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/20091210_d0
1-03_oth_en_ps_best_practice_compendium_english_version.pdf

Best practice compendium cr
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/20091210_d0
1-
02_oth_hr_ps_best_practice_compendium_croatian_version.pdf
In which languages
are the tools
available

EN, CR


111

What is the format

PDF
Coordinator of the
project

Zeljko Mavrovic
E-mail: pet.plus@petplus.hr
Other partners in the
project

Dr.Andrija Stampar Institute of Public Health, Croatia
Eco Centar pz, Croatia
Ecological- Cultural Association for Better World, Slovenia
Coram Life Education UK, United Kingdom
Contact person for
further information

Zeljko Mavrovic
E-mail: pet.plus@petplus.hr
Project Website and /
or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.

Project website defunct http://www.healthy-eco-life.com

Best practice compendium en
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/20091210_d0
1-03_oth_en_ps_best_practice_compendium_english_version.pdf

Best practice compendium cr
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/20091210_d0
1-
02_oth_hr_ps_best_practice_compendium_croatian_version.pdf
112


6.24 PERISCOPE

Question Description
Title of EU Project

PERISCOPE - Pilot European Regional Interventions for Smart
Childhood Obesity Prevention in Early Age (Project No
2006341 under EU Health Programme 2008-2013)

information taken from
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database.html?prjno=
2006341
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

The general objective of the PERISCOPE project is to prevent
child obesity between the ages of 3 and 6. PERISCOPE is aimed at
combating the increase of child obesity in three European
countries: Italy, Denmark and Poland.
Theoretical
background of the
project

Development of eating habits in kindergarten children
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term

Children between the ages of 3 and 6
What is the subject
of the project

Healthy eating
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Proposed methodology: The study will be performed in one
medium-sized city, or a suburb of a large city, in two
kindergartens per country, where one will act as control group,
while in the other preventive interventions will be performed. At
kindergarten, children will be measured in height and weight by
health workers, such as dieticians, paediatricians, or registered
nurses, specifically trained and standardised according to WHO
recommendation procedures. The project will perform an
assessment of family and kindergarten factors related to
childhood obesity using questionnaires and focus groups. The
project will also carry out a survey on kindergarten meals.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been developed
in the project

Tools as well as reports and project newsletter can be
downloaded from (see reports and deliverables):
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database.html?prjno=2006341

Among the tools are kindergarten materials such as story
books,cookbooks and workshop materials.
In which languages
are the tools
available

EN, DK, PL

113

What is the format

Written material
Where and how have
the tools been tested

Information not available, since project reports are not accessible
from
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database.html?prjno=2006341
Evaluation of tools

Information not available, since project reports are not accessible
from
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database.html?prjno=2006341
Coordinator of the
project
Main Beneficiary:
Movimento Difesa del Cittadino (MDC)-ONLUS
Via Quintino Sella, 41
PO-BOX
00187 Roma
Italy
Tel: 0039064881891
Fax: 0039064881891

Project Leader:
Longo Antonio
E-mail: antoniolongo@mdc.it
Other partners in the
project

Movimento Consumatori, Italy
Slaska Akademia Medyczna / Medical University of Silesiao,
Poland
Azienda Sanitaria Locale Brindisi 1 AUSLBR1, Italy
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet Department of Nutrition DTU
(until 01/04/2009), Denmark
Aalborg University (from 01/04/2009), Denmark
Contact person for
further information

See above
Project Website and /
or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.

The project website is not more available.
(http://www.periscopeproject.eu/)

Tools as well as reports and project newsletter can be
downloaded from (see reports and deliverables):
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database.html?prjno=2006341

Selection of tools for kindergarten

Information on food and cooking for children (dk):
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006341_food
1.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006341_food
2.pdf

Taste workshop apple (en): see reports and deliverables at
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database.html?prjno=2006341
childrens' tales book in DK. (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006341_child
rens_tales_book_in_dk.pdf
114


childrens' tales book in English (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006341_child
rens_tales_book_in_english.20.pdf


Childrens games for kindergarten:
old street game book6 (P)
http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database/fileref/2006341_old_
street_game_book6_1_10.pdf
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner

Information material for kindergartens containing information for
children.

115

6.25 EATWELL

Question Description
Title of EU Project

EATWELL (Interventions to Promote Healthy Eating Habits:
Evaluation and Recommendations)

Information taken from: http://www.eatwellproject.eu/en/
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
European Union (EU) Member States have initiated a variety of
national policy interventions to encourage physical activity and
healthy eating. However, such interventions have rarely been
evaluated systematically. EATWELL (running from April 2009 to
March 2013) aims at giving an overview of the actions
undertaken and identifying gaps, success and failure factors for
these campaigns. Its final objective is to provide EU Member
States policy makers with best-practice guidelines with valuable
insights from the private sector and communication agencies for
developing appropriate policy interventions that will encourage
healthy eating across Europe.
Theoretical
background of the
project

Not identified
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term
Policy makers
What is the subject
of the project

Policy and decision-making for healthy eating and physical
activity
Activities in the
project and
methodology

Assessment of the efficacy of past policy interventions in
improving dietary and health outcomes, and identification of
promising avenues for the future.

Assessment of the acceptability of potential future interventions
and generation of best-practice guidelines for implementation
Provision of policy, data collection and monitoring advice in
relation to healthy eating.

Management of project to optimize scientific output and
communication of scientific findings to a wide audience.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been developed
in the project

EATWELL reports
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-research/Project-Reports/

EATWELL summary and summary of policy recommendations
(Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Polish)
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Media-centre/Final-leaflet/


116

EATWELL policy recommendations (en)
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/upload/Reports/Deliverable%205_1.p
df

Best-practice guide policies evaluation (en)
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/upload/Reports/Deliverable%205_2.p
df

EATWELL Webinar with scientific information on evaluation of
policy interventions, recommendations on marketing for food
choices, EATWELL survey on EU citizens acceptance of food
policies and EATWELL policy guide and recommendations (en)
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Media-centre/Final-webinar/

Article (en):
Traill, W. B., Mazzocchi, M., Niedwiedzka, B., Shankar, B., &
Wills, J. (2013). The EATWELL project: Recommendations for
healthy eating policy interventions across Europe. Nutrition
Bulletin, 38(3), 352357.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nbu.12048/full
In which languages
are the tools
available

Most recommendations are available in English. Summaries are
available in: Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Polish

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Media-centre/Final-leaflet/
What is the format

Where and how have
the tools been tested
The EATWELL policy recommendations have been tested in the
project. See: Traill, W. B., Mazzocchi, M., Niedwiedzka, B.,
Shankar, B., & Wills, J. (2013). The EATWELL project:
Recommendations for healthy eating policy interventions across
Europe. Nutrition Bulletin, 38(3), 352357.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nbu.12048/full
Evaluation of tools

Coordinator of the
project

The University of Reading
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/About-Eatwell/Technical-details/
Other partners in the
project

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/Kraft-Foods-R-D-
Inc/

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/EUFIC/

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/EACA/

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/Jagiellonian-
University-Medical-College/

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/INRAN/

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/Ghent-University/

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/University-of-
Bologna/

117


http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/Aarhus-University/

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/SOAS-University-of-
London/

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-partners/University-of-
Reading/

Contact person for
further information

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Contact/Contact-form/
Project Website and /
or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.

EATWELL reports
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Eatwell-research/Project-Reports/

EATWELL summary and summary of policy recommendations
(Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Polish)
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Media-centre/Final-leaflet/
EATWELL policy recommendations (en)
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/upload/Reports/Deliverable%205_1.p
df

Best-practice guide nutrition policies evaluation (en)
http://eatwellproject.eu/en/upload/Reports/Deliverable%205_2.p
df

EATWELL Webinar with scientific information on evaluation of
policy interventions, recommendations on marketing for food
choices, EATWELL survey on EU citizens acceptance of food
policies and EATWELL policy guide and recommendations (en)

http://eatwellproject.eu/en/Media-centre/Final-webinar/

Article (en):
Traill, W. B., Mazzocchi, M., Niedwiedzka, B., Shankar, B., &
Wills, J. (2013). The EATWELL project: Recommendations for
healthy eating policy interventions across Europe. Nutrition
Bulletin, 38(3), 352357.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nbu.12048/full
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner

Policy recommendations
118


6.26 RICHIE

Question Description
Title of EU Project

RICHIE (Research Inventory for Child Health in Europe)
Main and specific
objective(s) of the project

Resource of indicators for child health
Theoretical background of
the project

Measurement and monitoring
Target groups:
- Short term
- Long term

Researchers
What is the subject of the
project

Database of indicators
Activities in the project
and methodology

Development of database for indicators
Description of available
and accessible tools (or
deliverables) that have
been developed in the
project

Inventory of current research; Research into child health
measurement, statistics, and indicators; Gaps in child health
research as perceived by a range of stakeholders;
Roadmaps for the future of child health research in Europe
In which languages are the
tools available

English and further European languages
What is the format

Web-based database
Where and how have the
tools been tested

Collection of scientifically adequate indicators tested in
original research
Evaluation of tools

Tools and indicators are taken from the scientific literature.
Coordinator of the project
Treasa McVeigh Ph.D,
RICHE Project Management,
H209, School of Nursing and Human Sciences,
Dublin City University,
Dublin 9,
Ireland,
Tel: +353 (0)1 7007158,
Email: treasa.mcveigh@dcu.ie
Other partners in the
project

Not identified

119

Contact person for further
information

Email: treasa.mcveigh@dcu.ie
Project Website and / or
links to relevant material
that can be linked to the
HEPCOM learning platform.

http://www.childhealthresearch.eu/

Indicators:
http://www.childhealthresearch.eu/@@search?search_input
=*&search=Search&refine_type=MeasurementsAndIndicato
rs&is_journel=is_journel&is_grey=is_grey&is_research=is_r
esearch&funding_approved=funding_approved&research_fie
lds=all&member_fields=all&organisation_funding_organisati
on=organisation_funding_organisation&organisation_non_fu
nding_organisation=organisation_non_funding_organisation
&organisation_fields=all&mai_fields=all
Any additional comments
from the HEPCOM partner

Might be usable to identify baseline information on health
status of children in Europe and for identifying specific
evaluation indicators.
120

6.27 MOVE

Question Description
Title of EU
Project
MOVE
Information taken from www.wemoveyou.eu
Main and
specific
objective(s) of
the project

The MOVE project aims to identify, qualify and implement good
practices in cross-cutting community initiatives to promote health-
enhancing physical activity in socio-economically disadvantaged areas.

The specifc objectives of MOVE are:

1. To benefit socially disadvantaged groups through good practice
health-enhancing physical activity initiatives that match their
particular needs and context;

2. To promote good practice health-enhancing physical activity
initiatives targeting socially disadvantaged groups in Europe at the
local, national and international level;

3. To mobilize cross-cutting partnerships and networks on physical
activity which reach out to socially marginalized groups.
(http://www.wemoveyou.eu/description/projectdescription/objectives)
Theoretical
background of
the project
The MOVE project aims to collect and qualify good practices that
promote heath-enhancing physical activity among socially
disadvantaged groups. In this effort, MOVE will focus on experiences
that have been successful in targeting the following groups living in
disadvantaged urban or rural areas with socio-economic challenges.
Target groups
Immediate
- Short
term
- Long
term

The MOVE project targets youth, ethnic minorities/immigrants and
women/girls in two specific types of socio-economically disadvantaged
areas. In doing this, it builds upon a long series of project experiences
from related physical activity (often good practice focused) proposals
to develop a unique methodology and strong target group focus.
(http://www.wemoveyou.eu/description)

The MOVEproject target group is composed of direct and indirect
beneficiaries.

The direct (immediate beneficiaries) are:

1. European stakeholders - apart from the project partners, a wide
range of stakeholders will be addressed (via the networking
methodology) and engaged in committing showcase partnerships to
promote physical activity for health. The sectors represented by
partners will be the starting point of this outreach.

2. National and local stakeholders - via the project dissemination and
collaborating partner pilot actions, national and local stakeholders will
be addressed, inspired and engaged in cross-cutting partnerships.

121

Specifically, the project focuses on local municipalities (via their
school, health, community and sport departments), other civil society
associations (e.g., youth or citizenship NGOs) and private sector (play
industry and fitness sector).

The indirect (ultimate beneficiaries) are the citizens in:

1. disadvantaged urban areas (low-income residential areas);

2. rural areas with socio-economical challenges and low sport
association penetration and poor PA infrastructure.

The citizens of particular focus in the project (living in the above
areas) will be:

1. Young people (12-22 years old);
2. Ethnic minorities and immigrants;
3. Girls and women.

What is the
subject of the
project
Physical activity
Activities in the
project and
methodology
Good practice handbook and guidelines
Through the MOVE project the project partners will identify and qualify
200+ good practices in cross-cutting community initiatives for
promoting health-enhancing physical activity for the specific MOVE
target groups. The collection of good practices and formulation of
guidelines on how best to target socio-economically disadvantaged
groups will serve as a source of inspiration and learning. both for
organizations, as well as individuals engaged in the field of physical
activity, sport for all, and health enhancement.
WeMove web platformThe project web platform will play an
important role in the process of collecting and promoting the good
practices and will also serve as a hub for sharing information and news
about project progress. At the end of the project, the platform will
feature a database containing the good practices collected through an
online survey. The survey is designed to collect descriptions of their
practices from individuals and organizations, which will be submitted
for evaluation in order to qualify as a good practice.The WeMOVE web
platform and database will be accessible to the general public.
Description of
available and
accessible tools
(or
deliverables)
that have been
developed in
the project
Good practice handbook
Good practice database / Collection of good practices:
http://www.wemoveyou.eu/handbook/handbook/what

In which
languages are
the tools
available

English (links to local projects in Europe)
122

What is the
format

Website
Where and how
have the tools
been tested

Information not available
Evaluation of
tools

Information not available
Coordinator of
the project

International Sport and Culture Association - ISCA
Other partners
in the project


Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitt
Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen Nrnberg
UNICAS - Universit Degli Studi Di Cassino
CESS - Confederation Europeenne Sport et Sant
FEPI - Federation of the European Play Industry
EHFA - European Health and Fitness Association
CIA - The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, the Schools of
Architecture, Design and Conservation
SFW Streetfootballworld
Contact person
for further
information

International Sport
and Culture Association
Tietgensgade 65
DK-1704 Copenhagen V
Tel.: +45 33 29 80 26
Fax: +45 33 29 80 28
info@isca-web.org
www.isca-web.org
(http://www.wemoveyou.eu/files/MOVE_project/Files/Move_Folder_DE
F_Mail.pdf)
Project Website
and / or links to
relevant
material that
can be linked to
the HEPCOM
learning
platform.

http://www.wemoveyou.eu

Collection of good practices:
http://www.wemoveyou.eu/handbook/handbook/what


Any additional
comments from
the HEPCOM
partner

Information on community-based enhancement of physical activity,
may be partially useful


123



6.28 INFORM

Question Description
Title of EU
Project

INFORM
All information taken from
http://www.inform-sanicademia.org/index.php
Main and
specific
objective(s) of
the project

The general objective of the InForm project is to develop integrated
overweight / obesity prevention and treatment strategies for children
and adolescents. Implemented beyond project time in the participating
countries, these will contribute to combating the childhood obesity
epidemic in Europe.
(http://www.inform-sanicademia.org/project.php)

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 1.
To develop a European, interdisciplinary manual on prevention and
treatment of childhood obesity, including standards and guidelines.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 2.
To develop a European, interdisciplinary training course for health
professionals, accredited with the respective, competent national
authorities in each partner country, to become certified 'obesity
trainers'.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 3.
To carry-out a social marketing campaign at local levels in all
participating countries, targeting children from lower socio-economic
classes, their families and immediate environment.
http://www.informactive.eu/

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 4.
To create a network of competence centres, which, beyond the project
time, will implement the manual and the training course, including the
spread to other European countries.

(http://www.inform-sanicademia.org/objectives.php)
Theoretical
background of
the project

Prevention is and has been conducted similarly to counselling, only on
a health and psychological basis, without the use of empirically well-
confirmed theories from social psychology, for example regarding the
topics of attitude, behaviour and communication. It specifically
concerns campaigns for changing eating and physical activity
behaviour as well as influencing all forms of eating disorders. These
measures of the first generation showed a boom in 'enlightenment',
mostly in the mesosystem school, partially even increasing the
problem of eating disorders.

This cannot be explained away by psychological disorders of the
children but rather through group dynamics and the building of norms
within the group.

124


The campaigns of the second generation focussed mainly on self-
esteem that has been seen and rightly so as one of the central
predictors of eating disorders. More recent studies cross this intra-
border of psychological disciplines. In a comparison of different
prevention campaigns Pearson et. al (2002) conclude that campaigns
against eating disorders and obesity should learn three things from
the already successful campaigns against depression.
Firstly, the accuracy of the methodology, secondly, carefulness
regarding the handling of prevention in groups to avoid unexpected
group-dynamic effects and thirdly, the implementation of social norms
marketing and other socio-psychological findings.
(http://www.inform-sanicademia.org/problem.php)
Target groups
Immediate
- Short
term
- Long
term

Children and families
What is the
subject of the
project

All contents and guidelines on prevention and therapy are based on
the approaches considered relevant in the latest literature on the
issue. An important factor is that the prevention of obesity should be
looked at in conjunction with that of eating disorders, as it has been
proven that the transition from obesity to eating disorders and vice
versa is easy. Furthermore, such an approach also takes into account
the comorbidity of obesity and eating disorders, which lies at approx.
7% (bulimia) and 30% (Binge-Eating Disorder).

The preventive and therapeutic concept of 'InForm' takes the addictive
aspect of overeating into account, as well as comorbidity with ADHD
(Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder).

(http://www.inform-sanicademia.org/problem.php)
Activities in the
project and
methodology

See specific objectives above
Description of
available and
accessible tools
(or
deliverables)
that have been
developed in
the project

Tips for children and parents (nutritional guidance, active families)
http://www.informactive.eu/page/61/For-Kids.htm
http://www.informactive.eu/page/53/For-Parents.htm

In which
languages are
the tools
available

German, Italian

125

What is the
format

Website
Where and how
have the tools
been tested

Information not available
Evaluation of
tools

Information not available
Coordinator of
the project

Sanicademia - Internationale Fortbildungsakademie fr
Gesundheitsberufe EWIV-EEIGAustria
Other partners
in the project

Nutrigenomics Center, Medical University Varna - Bulgaria
Regional Association of Hospitals "Staraplanina" - Bulgaria
Seinjoki University of Applied Sciences - Finland
Vestfold Hospital Trust - Norway
Landeskrankenhaus Villach - Austria
University Medical Centre Ljubljana - Slovenia
University of Cumbria - United Kingdom
Community Health Centre Ljubljana - CINDI - Slovenia
National Institute for Food and Nutrition Science - Hungary
Regione del Veneto - Italy
Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region - Italy

Contact person
for further
information

See coordinator
Project Website
and / or links to
relevant
material that
can be linked to
the HEPCOM
learning
platform.

Tips for children and parents (nutritional guidance, active families)

http://www.informactive.eu/page/61/For-Kids.htm

http://www.informactive.eu/page/53/For-Parents.htm

Any additional
comments from
the HEPCOM
partner

Information for children and parents
126


6.29 HELENA

Question Description
Title of EU
Project

HELENA
Information taken from http://www.helenastudy.com/
Main and
specific
objective(s) of
the project

The HELENA proposal includes cross-sectional, crossover and pilot
community intervention multi-centre studies, as an integrated
approach. HELENA will develop new healthy foods, attractive for male
and female European adolescents.
The requirements for health-promoting foods will be identified, and
three sensory acceptable products for adolescents will be developed.
Theoretical
background of
the project
Achievements:
- New innovative and culturally adapted methods for assessing
diet, nutrition, and physical activity and fitness in adolescents of
different European countries
- Knowledge about dietary and physical activity patterns in
European adolescents
- Knowledge about determinants of food choices and preferences
of adolescents in Europe
- Cultural, social, genetic and gender differences and similarities
across Europe
- Identification of adolescents at risk of eating disorders,
dislipemia, obesity and/or type 2 diabetes
- Improvement of the adolescents diet in Europe providing new
and attractive healthy foods
- Improvement of life-style habits of adolescents in Europe
providing a computer-based education tool
www.helenastudy.com/impacts.php
Target groups
Immediate
- Short
term
- Long
term

Adolescents








What is the
subject of the
project

Healthy eating

127

Activities in the
project and
methodology

HELENA will provide, for the first time in Europe, data on the
relationship between genetic markers and phenotypical characteristics
among male and female European adolescents.
Description of
available and
accessible tools
(or
deliverables)
that have been
developed in
the project

Website contains scientific papers

International fitness questionaire
http://www.helenastudy.com/ifis.php

Public Documents - Scientific Papers
http://www.helenastudy.com/scientific.php
In which
languages are
the tools
available

English
What is the
format

PDF
Where and how
have the tools
been tested

Within the project
Evaluation of
tools

Within the project
Coordinator of
the project

Prof. Luis A. Moreno Aznar
Universidad de Zaragoza
E.U. Ciencias de la Salud,
Domingo Miral s/n,
50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Tel: +34 976761000
Fax: +34 976761752
e-mail: lmoreno@unizar.es
http://www.helenastudy.com/abstract.php
Other partners
in the project

Universidad de Granada
Institut Pasteur de Lille
Productos Aditivos
The European Food Information Council, EUFIC
Project Website
and / or links to
relevant
material that
can be linked to
the HEPCOM
learning
platform.

http://www.helenastudy.com/

http://www.helenastudy.com/ifis.php


Any additional
comments from
the HEPCOM
partner

International fitness scale for evaluation purposes
128


6.30 HABEAT

Question Description
Title of EU Project

HABEAT
Information taken from http://www.habeat.eu/
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project

Determining factors and critical periods in food Habit formation
and breaking in Early childhood: a multidisciplinary approach
Improving infant and child eating habits, encouraging fruit and
vegetable intake.

Translating evidence into practical recommendations.
Theoretical
background of the
project

Understanding of how food habits are formed (and can also be
changed) in infants and young children.
This will be achieved by combining epidemiological studies based
on existing human cohorts from 4 countries, and experimental
work carried out in 6 countries so as to collaboratively identify:

- the critical periods in the formation/breaking of food
habits
- the key learning mechanisms, their relative impact in
the short, mid and long term and their importance
according to the different critical periods
- the most effective strategies for breaking habits, i.e.
for changing from poor to healthy habits
- Individual reactions to the learning mechanisms and
individual susceptibility to changes

HabEat will also propose strategies to policy makers for
promoting practices to ensure healthy food habits in young
infants and children as well as intervention strategies for enabling
habit breaking taking into account individual differences and
parental feeding strategies.

http://www.habeat.eu/page.php?a=overview
Target groups
Immediate
- Short term
- Long term

Young infants and children

What is the subject
of the project
Learning healthy eating
Activities in the
project and
methodology

HabEat combines two complementary approaches:
An epidemiological approach based on selected human cohorts
(via WP1)

An experimental approach (via WP2 & WP3) enabling the study of
the impact of different events and the timing of these different

129

events on a series of output variables chosen to characterise (5
years) childrens food habits in different dimensions i.e.
qualitative, quantitative, temporal and contextual. The
experimental approach will enable the comparison of the
effectiveness of different learning mechanisms at different ages
and the comparison of the effectiveness of different strategies for
modifying behaviour, both in the short term and also in the long
term. This approach will also enable us to explore the inter-
individual differences concerning the efficiency of these different
mechanisms and the origin of these differences in their previous
"food history".

WP1 - Identification of critical periods and critical factors in the
development of food habits
WP2 - Exploring key learning mechanisms and individual
variations
WP3 - Exploring new strategies for breaking habits and individual
variations in responsiveness to these strategies
WP4 - Recommendations, Guidelines and Communication
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been developed
in the project

Deliverables contain scientific information of the intervention
Deliverable D4.1 Identified core concepts in food habit formation
Deliverable D7-Overview on the short-term relative impact of key
learning mechanisms and individual reactions
Deliverable D2: HabEat website
Deliverable D6-Stakeholder workshop
Deliverable D.5- Review article. The summary of existing and gap
Deliverable D9-The influence of the self-regulation teaching
programme on food habits
Deliverable D10-Interim report-Effective combinations of sensory
properties in changing food habits by mere exposure
Deliverable-D11-Interim report-Guidelines for relearning
Deliverable D14-New or adapted tools to assess parental feeding
practices and food habits/preferences, at different periods in large
scale studies
Deliverable D12 - The impact of early exposure to a variety of
fruit and vegetables on their further acceptance
Deliverable D10-Effective combinations of sensory properties in
changing food habits by mere exposure
D13-To assess the impact of parental styles and individual
differences on acquisition of food habits
Deliverable D16-Analysis of the critical periods and critical factors
in the development of food habits and preferences from birth to
five years old and recommendation for future research
Deliverable D11-Guidelines for relearning through social learning

http://www.habeat.eu/publications.php
In which languages
are the tools
available

Danish, Dutch, English, French, Greek, Portuguese
http://www.habeat.eu/page.php?a=parents
What is the format

Newsletters
HabEat newsletter 1
HabEat newsletter 2
HabEat newsletter 3
HabEat Newsletter 4
130

HabEat Newsletter 5
HabEat Newsletter 6
HabEat Newsletter 7

Others
Vitanews - French
Vitanews international
UCPH - Denmark newspaper
EC Workshop "New Technologies and innovations to tackle
obesity"

The HabEat coordinator, Sylvie Issanchou, participated on 16
November 2010 at the workshop "New technologies and
innovations to tackle obesity, " that was organised by the
European Commission (Isabelle de Froidmont-Gortz, Scientific
Officer - (Research Directorate-General Food-Health- Well-being).
Sylvie presented the HabEat project and ideas for concrete
research action on "new technologies and innovation to tackle
obesity".
HabEat Flyer

http://www.habeat.eu/files.php
Where and how have
the tools been tested

Within the project
Evaluation of tools

Within the project
Coordinator of the
project

The Coordinator of the project is INRA, represented by Dr Sylvie
Issanchou.
Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)
Other partners in the
project

Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek (DLO-Food &
Biobased Research)
Institut National de la Sant et de la recherche mdicale
(INSERM)
The University of Leeds (ULeeds)
Wageningen University (Wageningen UR)
Kbenhavns Universitet (UCPH)
University College London (UCL)
Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto (FMUP) y
Harokopio University (HUA)
University of Bristol (UNIBRIS)
INRA Transfert SA (IT)
Project Website and /
or links to relevant
material that can be
linked to the
HEPCOM learning
platform.

Deliverable D4.1 Identified core concepts in food habit formation
Deliverable D7-Overview on the short-term relative impact of key
learning mechanisms and individual reactions
Deliverable D2: HabEat website
Deliverable D6-Stakeholder workshop
Deliverable D.5- Review article. The summary of existing and gap
of
Deliverable D9-The influence of the self-regulation teaching
programme on food habits
Deliverable D10-Interim report-Effective combinations of sensory
properties in changing food habits by mere exposure
Deliverable-D11-Interim report-Guidelines for relearning

131

Deliverable D14-New or adapted tools to assess parental feeding
practices and food habits/preferences, at different periods in large
scale studies
Deliverable D12 - The impact of early exposure to a variety of
fruit and vegetables on their further acceptance
Deliverable D10-Effective combinations of sensory properties in
changing food habits by mere exposure
D13-To assess the impact of parental styles and individual
differences on acquisition of food habits
Deliverable D16-Analysis of the critical periods and critical factors
in the development of food habits and preferences from birth to
five years old and recommendation for future research
Deliverable D11-Guidelines for relearning through social learning
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner

Scientific information on learning eating habits in children

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6.31 Garden Project

Question Description
Title of EU Project

GARDEN
Information taken from http://www.garden-project.eu/
Main and specific
objective(s) of the
project
The project offers handouts and materials for adult education
focused on "education-resistant" groups among young
disadvantaged adults. Frustrating experience during the
educational process can be avoided with help of the GARDEN
Didactic Manual and Toolkit to motivate and (re)integrate them
into the labour market.
http://www.garden-project.eu/en/welcome
Theoretical
background of the
project
All over Europe, unemployment rates for young adults have
reached an alarmingly high level and recent forecasts are not
positive. That is why adult education and VET providers need to
react in an innovative way.
By introducing a new (outdoor) learning environment and applying
a holistic approach, the project Garden your educational life a
new learning environment and opportunity to access education
and improve employability for young disadvantaged adults in
Europe takes advantage of the overall concept of nature and
gardens
Target groups
Immediate (Short
and long term)

Adolescents
What is the subject
of the project

Gardening, education and empowerment growing vegetables;
indirectly suitable for awareness-raising for healthy eating, and
HEPCOM
Activities in the
project and
methodology

Time and place of teaching are connected to garden and nature.
As a result, new didactic concepts and based on these, didactic
material for use in class, can be offered.
By employing these innovative methods in a new learning
environment, teachers and trainers are able to reach young, low-
level educated adults better. Experimental training of basic skills,
key skills and personal competences profits the target group in
gaining (new) access to the labour market.
Description of
available and
accessible tools (or
deliverables) that
have been
developed in the
project

- GARDEN Didactic Manual with practical indications how to
improve communication, social and personal skills throughout
the topics ,garden and ,nature
- the GARDEN Toolkit with educational material and exercises
- the ,GARDEN platform - with education and didactic material


133

In which languages
are the tools
available

German, Spanish, Danish, Latvian and English
What is the format

Website
Where and how
have the tools been
tested

During the validation-phase of the GARDEN project, elaborated
didactic materials in form of more than 70 training TOOLS and a
Didactic Manual were implemented in training courses, youth
group activities and other learning environments. In total, the
records show that approximately 120 learners aged between 16
and 19 years took part in the activities. In addition to the
learners, about the same number of facilitators was involved in
the validation.

(see http://www.garden-project.eu/en/news)
Evaluation of tools

After the evaluation-phase; tools are considered well-accepted.
Coordinator of the
project

Projekt (n 518294-LLP-1-2011-1-AT-GRUNDTVIG-GMP)
Other partners in
the project

The partnership of the project ,GARDEN consists of VET
providers, employers associations, public bodies, consulting and
research organisations and innovation experts from Austria,
Germany, Iceland, Spain, Latvia and the UK.
(http://www.garden-project.eu/en/partners)

Further project partners:
www.hessen.de
www.inveslan.es
www.starfsafl.is
www.pointeuropa.org
www.pscl.lt
Contact person for
further information

BEST Institut fr berufsbezogene
Weiterbildung und Personaltraining GmbH
Mariahilfer Strae 8
A - 1070 Wien, Austria
www.best.at
http://www.garden-project.eu/en/partners
Project Website and
/ or links to
relevant material
that can be linked
to the HEPCOM
learning platform.
http://www.garden-project.eu/
Didactic manual, toolkit, platform
Any additional
comments from the
HEPCOM partner

Project is indirectly suitable for awareness-raising for healthy
eating and for HEPCOM.
134

APPENDIX 2: NEEDS ANALYSIS INTERVIEW TEMPLATE

HEPCOM Local Community Interview Guide
Introduction
You have now identified 3 local communities to be included in the HEPCOM project, and it
is time to carry out the interviews with these local communities. Please do remember
that one of our objectives in the HEPCOM project is that at least 1/3 of the local
communities that we are working with should be economically under privileged.
The interview guide is constructed in four main parts; 1) a description of the objective
and the process of the interview, 2) definitions and typologies, 3) a description of the
structure of the interview and a list of concrete questions and 4) templates to summarise
and report back.
1a. Objective of interview
The objective of this interview is to collect information for conducting a needs analysis
and plan coaching processes. The analysis focuses on the local context and how local
authorities/stakeholders plan, structure, implement and evaluate their health promoting
activities on promoting healthy eating and physical activity towards children and young
people, and the tools they need in order to improve and qualify their work in this area.
1b. Process of interview
At least one interview should be carried out in each local community. You can decide for
your country how you want to carry out the interviews and who you want to interview.
You can choose the method which suits you and your respondent best. You can choose to
have interviews with stakeholders from different levels in the local community such as
strategic, administrative and practical level or to make focus group interviews where
you invite stakeholders from the different levels to one interview and discussion, which
can be useful to facilitate the planning and starting up of the pilot projects. To get a
complete picture of your country it would be helpful to get different point of views by
interviewing stakeholders from more than one level (strategic, administrative, and
practical).
Instructions
The following instructions are intended to support you in the process of conducting the
interviews and analyzing/ summarizing the results:
- Before carrying out the interview you will need to send an information letter and
the HEPCOM brochure to the stakeholders. Start the interview with introducing
the HEPCOM project and the objective of the interview.
- Ask for permission to audio tape the interview.
- We use personal interviews as a qualitative method since we want to focus on the
views of the stakeholders. As interviewer you should be open and objective as
much as possible.
- Please start the interview with a general welcome or ice breaking questions, which
helps your respondent to feel comfortable. If you feel that the respondent is
confident with the interview situation you can go deeper in the interview.

135

- Do not interrupt your respondent when he/she digresses. The guiding principle for
you when you carry out interviews is to get sufficient information in order for us
to carry out the needs analysis. In other words the interviews should be GOAL
driven.
- After finishing the interview you are asked to transcribe/summarize the
information from the interviews by using the table on page 7. In this process it is
important that you provide the HEPCOM project team with an unbiased and
unfiltered summary of the results. Do not only focus on a specific interview that
e.g. suits best to your preconceptions or which you like best. When completing
the table you are asked to summarize the interviews by deleting irrelevant data
(those outside the subject of this research) and by clustering similar statements
to one category. You can highlight certain issues if they were stated by a majority
of your respondents or if certain passages represent an exception. You can use
the audio recording you made as a base for doing this.
- If there are any important documents to support the analysis of part 1 or part 2 of
the interview guide, please do attach them.
You should start with Part 1 of the interview to get to know the local community,
gathering information that you can use to plan the pilot projects in WP 6.
Part 2 is the core information that we will use for the needs analysis and which should be
forwarded toWP4 (Dietmar). Please forward the summary of the interview as soon as
possible via email in a word document to goelitz@leuphana.de. The deadline is
September 1
st
.
NB! You should not use more than 300 words per answer.
136


2a. Typology of stakeholders
In an ideal world, the planning process of health promoting activities in local communities
will look more or less like this.



Source: The PoHeFa project
Based on this process the stakeholders for the interviews can be grouped into three
typologies, which are the following:
Policy makers and decision makers
Politicians, directors and executive staff who have the responsibility to create visions,
missions overall policies and strategies for health promoting activities towards children
and young people.

137


Administrative staff
Civil servants working in public administrations, observatories, health services etc. who
are planning the overall health promoting activities towards children and young people in
the local community and who should also make sure that an overall evaluation is carried
out of activities.

Practitioners
Staff who are working in organizations that are close to the citizens e.g. schools,
health promoting centers, sports clubs, kindergartens who have the responsibility to
implement the activities.

2b. Definitions used
Definition of a local community:
In the HEPCOM project we define a local community as an authority on local or regional
level that has the political and economic mandate to plan, develop and implement health
promoting activities.
Definition of tools:
In the HEPCOM project we define tools as being methods, guidelines, conceptual
frameworks and templates that local communities apply in order to plan and structure
their health promoting activities towards children and young people.
Tools can be divided into the following 5 phases of a working process:
- Policy development,
- Strategic planning,
- Action planning,
- Implementation of interventions / health promoting activities
- Evaluation of interventions / health promoting activities
Definition of good practice tools
When we talk about good practice tools in the HEPCOM project, we refer to tools that
have proven to be a promising practice, good practice or best practice through a
practical try-out phase in a project or tools that are evidence based and have proven to
have a positive effect on children and young peoples health behaviour or health status.
These are definitions of the different types of practices:
Promising Practice: A specific action or set of actions that may demonstrate
potential of becoming 'good' or 'best' practice, but require further documented
evidence of success.
138

Good practice: A specific action or set of actions that may not have been
formally evaluated but appear to demonstrate some evidence of success
Best practice: A specific action or set of actions with which has been formally
evaluated and demonstrates evidence of success (i.e. they have been found to be
effective)
Source: Nigel Sherriff

3a. Structure of interview questions
The interview questions have been divided into 2 parts:
- Part 1: Characteristics of your local community and your organization
A set of introductory questions that helps identify the local authority/stakeholder and
how the local authority/stakeholder is currently carrying out health promotion activities
on promoting healthy eating and physical activity towards children and young people.
The objective of the first part of the interview is to gather information about the
context, the structure and conditions under which the local community works with health
promotion, healthy eating and physical activity, in order to be able to understand in what
condition the local pilot projects are going to be implemented and to prepare coaching
resources. We would like to ask you to pay attention on the fact we need three kinds of
contextual information. The first one is related to the local context, the second to the
stakeholders organization and the last on the way in which the stakeholder understands
his role in healthy eating and physical activity promotion. This information is requested
since the literature clearly shows the implementation process is affected by variables
related to institutional, individual, collective and contextual dimensions.
- Part 2: What does your local community need in order to plan and
structure its health promotion activities
Part 2 contains questions about the kind of tools that could support the local
authority/stakeholder to improve and qualify their work.
The objective of the second part of the interview is to gather information to conduct a
needs analysis which will be used as a foundation to design the web based learning
platform.

139


3b. Interview Questions
Part 1: Characteristics of your community and your organization (planning of
WP 6)
1. Describe the local community and the organization you work for:
a. What kind of organisation do you work for and what kind of responsibility
does your organisation have in relation to health promotion towards
children and young people?
b. What is the level of authonomy in your organisation? E.g. is your
organisation centrally controlled through national goals and strategies or is
your organisation decentralised, meaning that you are able to develop own
strategies and objectives
c. How will you define the concept of health that the local community uses as
a foundation for the health promoting work? (If the respondent has
difficulties to answer you can use this illustration to facilitate the
discussion)









Source: B.B Jensen 2003
d. Can you give an overall picture of the health profile of your local
community in relation to children and young people? What is your most
important health challenge? Is this challenge related to a specific context
of your local community? Is there any evidence for this viewpoint?
e. Has your organization identified any strategic goals regarding health
promotion towards children and young people?
f . If yes, what are these goals and who in your organization has put forward
these goals?
g. How many people are dedicated to work with health promotion towards
children and young people in your organization?
140

2. What kind of health promoting activities towards children and young people are
currently running in your community?
a. Are any of these specifically focusing on healthy eating and physical
activity
3. What kind of tools do you use to plan and structure your health promoting
activities towards children and your people? In:
Policy development,
Strategic planning,
Action planning,
Implementation of interventions focusing on healthy eating and
physical activities
Evaluation of interventions focusing on healthy eating and physical
activities
4. What barriers do you perceive in applying these tools? Try to give specific
examples about the context in your local community.
5. Which factors enhance the use of these tools? Try to give specific examples of the
context in your local community.
6. Where (e.g. internet, external consultants, university or other) do you get support
and tools that can help you in your daily work?
7. What is the strength of your organization, working with health promotion towards
children and young people? (If the respondent has difficulties in answering you
can give some examples; i.e. is your work based on evidence, is your work a
promising practice, is it based on a whole community approach, is your work
based on input from target groups, or.)
8. What is the major challenge of your organization, working with health promotion
towards children and young people? (If the respondent has difficulties in
answering you can give some examples; i.e. is your work not evidence based,
there is no common understanding of health, there is no strategic goal, or)


141

Part 2: What does your local community need in order to plan and structure its
health promotion activities? (Input to Needs Analysis)
1. Considering the way you work at the moment, what kind of tools would be helpful
for you in order to plan and structure you health promoting work better towards
children and young people? In relation to:
a) Policy development,
b) Strategic planning,
c) Action planning,
d) Implementation of interventions focusing on healthy eating and
physical activities
e) Evaluation of interventions focusing on healthy eating and physical
activities
2. Do you know if these kind of tools exist?
3. Which factors would enhance the use of these tools?
4. What barriers do you expect in applying these tools in your daily work?
5. What kind of health promoting activities would you like to implement in order to
successfully promote healthy eating and physical activity among children and
young people in your local community?
6. What kind of support do you need to be able to develop these health promoting
activities? E.g.

____ Regional policies
____ A local health strategy
____ A community health profile
____ Health surveys among children
____ Clear goals
____ Leadership
____ Collaboration with external partners (local / regional organisations etc.)
____ Collaboration with colleagues
____ Active involvement of parents
____ Active involvement of children and young people
____ Funding
____ Qualified staff
____ Knowledge of overweight prevention
____ Training
____ Information on health promotion programs
____ Information on the quality of prevention programs
____ Best practice information
____ Evaluation tools

7. The HEPCOM project develops a web based learning platform. If you are going to
use this platform as an active tool in your daily work and a source of inspiration
and knowledge, how should the platform look like? Which features should it have?
8. Are there any other issues that you would like to raise?
142


4a. Summary and preparation template for the pilot projects in WP 6 (prepare
one table per local community)
(It is possible that you will not be able to fill in this template after the first interview you
have with the local community. We propose that you use this template as a living
document to prepare the pilot project in WP 6

Name of Local
authority


What is the level of
authonomy in your
country in relation to
health promotion,
social affairs and
school education


What seems to be the
main challenges for
the local community
in relation to health
promotion and
especially healthy
eating and physical
activity towards
children and young
people


Where and how do
you as partner in the
HEPCOM project
estimate that you can
support the local
community in the
course of WP 6


Any specific wishes
for the training
session / workshops
during our partner
meeting in Austria in
April 2014


143

4b. Reporting back from the interviews in relation to the needs analysis in WP 4
NAME OF COUNTRY:

INSERT NAME OF LOCAL
COMMUNITY


INSERT NAME OF LOCAL
COMMUNITY

INSERT NAME OF LOCAL
COMMUNITY
Explain how you carried out the interviews e.g. individual interviews or focus group
interviews

NB! Not more than 300
words per answer


Who did you interview on the level of policy and decision makers




Who did you interview on the level of administrative staff




Who did you interview on the level of practitioners




Which tools are applied today on the level of policy and decision makers and which
barriers and promoting factors have been mentioned
Question 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5




Which tools are applied today on the level of administrative staff and which barriers and
promoting factors have been mentioned
Question 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5




Which tools are applied today on the level of practitioners and which barriers and
promoting factors have been mentioned
Question 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5




From which sources are inspirations gathered (internet, external consultants, university
or other) and knowledge of existing tools
Question 1.6 and 2.2




Which tools would be helpful on the level of policy and decision makers and which
barriers and promoting factors have been mentioned
Question 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4




Which tools would be helpful on the level of administrative staff and which barriers and
promoting factors have been mentioned
Question 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4
144





Which tools would be helpful on the level of practitioners and which barriers and
promoting factors have been mentioned
Question 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4




Future health promoting activities in the local community (This part is not divided into
stakeholder level, as it ideally should a common approach)
Question 2.5




What kind of support is needed on the level of policy and decision makers
Question 2.6




What kind of support is needed on the level of administrative staff
Question 2.6




What kind of support is needed on the level of practitioners
Question 2.6




Recommendations to web based learning platform
Question 2.7




Any other issues?
Question 2.8




Conclusion and wrap up by partner




145


The Learning Platform for Preventing CHILDHOOD OBESITY in Europe
Aarhus University (DK)
Bergen University College (NO)
Business Solutions Europa (BE)
Croatian National Institute of Public Health (HR)
Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement CBO (NL)
Institouto Ygeias tou Paidiou (EL)
Istituto Superiore dI Sanit (IT)
Leuphana Universitat Luneburg (DE)
Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft GmbH (AT)
Maastricht University (NL)
Mykolo Romerio Universitetas (LT)
National University of Ireland (IE)
P.A.U. Education (ES)
South Denmark European Ofce (DK)
Steno Diabetes Center (DK)
Stichting euPrevent EMR (NL)
University Blalse Pascal Cermont-Ferrand 2 (FR)
University of Brighton (UK)
University College Syddenmark (DK)
University of eastern Finland (FI)
Universidade do Minho (PT)
HEPCOM PARTNERS