The SPIM EU project aims at contributing to the reduction of cardio-metabolic morbidity and mortality in EU Member States by establishing the feasibility of implementing innovative selective prevention actions in primary care. In addition, the SPIM EU project will provide a toolbox for tailoring selective prevention actions in all EU Member States. The evidence based guideline of the Dutch College of General Practitioners represents an innovative approach for efficiently implementing selective prevention by a stepwise identification process of persons at high risk in the general population. However, successful implementation of this approach in EU Member States with different health care systems calls for tailoring of this action.The SPIM EU project includes five Work Packages (WP4-WP8), in addition to three horizontal Work Packages. WP4 includes the mapping of existing selective prevention programs in all EU Member States, and their strengths and weaknesses. In WP5 a systematic literature review will be conducted to summarize the knowledge from the literature about facilitating and hampering factors in implementing selective prevention programs and to identify determinants of their uptake and compliance. WP6 includes a survey among primary health care professionals and a sample of the general population in five EU Member States [SWE, DNK, NLD, CZE, GRE] to gain more insight into the task perceptions and attitudes towards selective prevention actions. In WP7 the results of WP4-WP6 will be collated and synthesized into tailored designs for implementing selective prevention actions (inspired by the Dutch guideline) in the five fore-mentioned EU Member States with the aim to test their feasibility. The feasibility tests are the core element of WP8. This will result in a toolbox of measures to tailor the implementation of selective prevention actions in all EU Member States taking their respective social, cultural, political and health care system contexts into account
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TOB-G project aims to develop and implement an innovative and cost effective approach to prevent chronic diseases related to tobacco dependence. The specialized guidelines for high risks groups will be developed according to ENSP’s evidence based and good practices in tobacco cessation and with ERS TCC scientific material on smoking health hazards. High risk populations are considered those who suffer from cardiovascular diseases, COPD, type 2 diabetes, adolescents & pregnant women.The developed guidelines will contain strategies and recommendations designed to assist health professionals in delivering and supporting effective treatment of dependence on tobacco. Recommendations will be made as a result of scientific reviews and evidence of good practices from scientific groups that will consist of health professionals of different expertise. To monitor the quality of the approach a pilot implementation of the tobacco cessation will be conducting for each group. The assessment of the effectiveness of the tobacco cessation guidelines will be the primary aim of the scientific groups and will be measured by the number of people quitting smoking after the pilot implementation. Since the tobacco cessation guidelines will be addressed to health professionals, the partnership will develop and implement an e-learning training for guidelines use.The project fits perfectly the objectives and priorities of the 3rd Health Programme, as it will assist health professionals to provide guidance and targeted prevention to high risk populations engaged to the unfavourable lifestyle of smoking. Training primary care physicians addresses the lack of specialist doctors in EU and increases access to tobacco cessation specialists. TOB-G project will enhance the overall European capacity in the treatment of tobacco dependence, thus, in the prevention of chronic diseases, through offering smoking cessation tools, appropriately assessed and fitted to the specific needs of high risk groups.
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South Asians populations living in Europe have an extremely high risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). More than 5 million people of South Asian origin live in Europe. Half of this population is likely to develop T2D. Moreover, its onset will be at a younger age and it will be more detrimental to cardiovascular health than in European origin populations. Consequently, the need to halt the T2D epidemic among these populations is a priority in many Member States. The evidence base for effective prevention in these groups is limited, but growing. A small number of recently conducted trials have given important insights into how to reduce the T2D risk of these groups, starting with people with pre-diabetes. Overall, the effectiveness of these behavioural interventions has been modest, and seems to be lower than observed in European origin populations. The aim of the proposed project, InPreSD-SA, is to build on the findings of these recent trials in order to accelerate knowledge production and the process of implementation of research findings by bringing together European experts in this field. The focus will be dietary behaviour. We plan to conduct in-depth analyses of the findings from these trials and other interventions studies with particular focus on the behavioural strategies employed. Our analysis will include consideration of the role of the environment in supporting healthy behaviour. Furthermore, we will critically evaluate dietary goals employed in current behavioural interventions, for different subgroups of the population. The findings from these analyses will specify HOW to support South Asian people in the uptake and maintenance of a healthy diet and WHAT to focus on. InPreSD-SA will be a coordinated effort to target the excessive risk for T2D in South Asian populations in Europe. The results will considerably advance our ability to address this major health challenge.
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