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August edition of the All-Island Obesity Forum News

The August issue of the Obesity Forum’s Newsletter includes a look at the recently released Irish Sports Policy 2018 – 2027. It also highlights Reports, Research, upcoming events and news in the area of obesity.

Ireland’s Healthy Ireland programme strengthened in the Department of Health 26.7.2018“A vision of people living longer, healthier lives, in safe, healthy environments”Minister for Health, Simon Harris and Minister of State at the Department of Health, Catherine Byrne, have announced two welcomed initiatives to strengthen he Healthy Ireland programme.An enhanced Healthy Ireland Office will be established within the Department of Health and a Government approved Outcomes Framework for Healthy Ireland  (a recommendation of the Sláintecare report) is to be published in early Autumn.  Minister Harris said “The new Outcomes Framework for Healthy Ireland has been developed to help assess and report on progress in the implementation of this key cross-government initiative, which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in Ireland.”He went on to say that  “The new Healthy Ireland Office will develop and deliver an action plan for the next phase of implementation of Healthy Ireland, and will be responsible for the delivery of an enhanced programme of communications and citizen engagement”.Minister Byrne said: “Healthy Ireland has a vision of people living longer, healthier lives, in safe, healthy environments. We want all our citizens, young and old, to feel supported in their communities in taking that first step towards a healthier lifestyle. That is why it is so important to further develop Healthy Ireland. Working with our partners, we aim to involve more organisations in helping to build and sustain a national movement for health and wellbeing, and generate a real enthusiasm for Healthy Ireland across every community.”  

IPH contributes to the JANPA Skills Building Workshop to ECO2018

The ECO2018 Congress on Obesity was held from 23rd to 26th of May 2018 in Vienna, Austria. Professor Kevin P. Balanda from the IPH contributed a session to the JANPA Workshop. The  brief session looked at mobilising data and research to estimate the lifetime costs of childhood obesity using the JANPA costing model. It outlined the data and research required, described some of the challenges and gave tips for overcoming these challenges. It ended with a brief overview of the opportunities that exist for countries in conducting such study in their country. 

Contact Prof Balanda at kevin.balanda@publichealth.ie 

Poster "Lifetime financial cost of childhood obesity on the island of Ireland" presented at the 6th ASOI Annual Conference 

The 2018 meeting was held on the 14th of May 2018 in association with the Division of Population Health Sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. This year the focus was on the environmental determinants of food consumption and obesity.

Professor Kevin P. Balanda from the Institute of Public health was delighted to present a poster on the Lifetime financial cost of childhood obesity on the island of Ireland.

For more information on the conference, click here.

To view the poster, click here.

To find out more information about IPH work on obesity, visit the Health Well Obesity Hub.