Organisations and individuals from six countries have been named winners of the World Obesity Day Europe Awards for 2023.
The World Obesity Day Europe Awards are issued under the following categories:
- The ECPO Award for The Best Public Engagement Programme
- The ECPO Award for the Best Patient Engagement Programme
- The EASO Award for the Best Collaborative Project
- The EASO Award for the Best National Training Programme
We are pleased to announce that the following organisations and individuals from across 6 countries have picked up an award.
The ECPO Award for The Best Public Engagement Programme has been awarded to the Irish Coalition for People Living with Obesity (ICPO) (https://icpobesity.org/).
ICPO launched their first podcast titled “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names will also hurt me”. It involved a discussion between people living with obesity – Linda, Catherine, Maura, and Susie – following a theme of how “Words Matter”.
The podcast is an educational resource on Stigma and Mental Health discussions between patients and advocates from ICPO.
The ECPO Award for the Best Patient Engagement Programme has been awarded to Amici Obesi Onlus, Italy (https://www.amiciobesi.it
They staged a theatrical event at the Teatro Spazio Tertulliano, Milano, which was the premiere of “Obesity/From”, a monologue play about the journey of a person living with obesity since childhood. It was performed by an Italian actress and bariatric surgery patient, Mrs Donatella Liotta.
A public debate between patients and healthcare professionals followed the play.
The EASO Award for the Best Collaborative Project has been awarded jointly to the Croatian State Referral Centre for the Treatment of Obesity (https://www.kbc-zagreb.hr/) and the Croatian Hypertension League (https://h-liga.hr/) and to the Slovak Obesity Association (https://obesitas.sk/), the Slovak Chamber of Pharmacy (https://www.slek.sk/) and the Bratislava Self-Governing Region (https://bratislavskykraj.sk/bratislava-region/), Slovakia.
The Croatian State Referral Centre for the Treatment of Obesity and the Croatian Hypertension League organised a panel event on Changing Perspectives. An expert panel raised tricky questions about communication on obesity, as well as about prevention and treatment. The event was also broadcast online and was featured in several TV and radio interviews.
The Slovak Obesity Association, the Slovak Chamber of Pharmacy and the Bratislava Self-Governing Region staged a collaborative project focused on improving obesity prevention by providing the measurements of obesity risk factors in pharmacies. More than 50 % of participants were directed to obesity specialists because of their high Body Mass Index (BMI).
The EASO Award for the Best National Training Programme has been awarded jointly to The Hungarian Society for the Study of Obesity (http://elhizastudomany.hu/hun) and several organisations from Israel – Ariel University, Assuta Medical Centers, Meuhedet Health Services, and Maccabi Health Services (websites currently unavailable).
The Hungarian Society organised a Postgraduate Course on World Obesity Day Europe on March 4. The course offered credit points for medical doctors and health professionals. The scientific programme focused on a holistic approach to address the rising obesity epidemic, including novel diagnostic procedures, multidisciplinary treatment, and prevention strategies.
Maccabi Health Services is Israel’s second-largest Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), serving 2.3 million insured members, and Meuhedet is Israel’s third largest, with 1.3 million insured members. Together, they represent more than a third of the population in Israel.
During the period of World Obesity Day, an online 15-minute educational module aiming to reduce weight bias and increase knowledge about obesity was distributed by email to Maccabi Health Services physicians and dietitians and all Meuhedet employees.
In addition, the educational module was distributed to 3,000 Assuta Medical Center employees to coincide with Dietitians Week.
Sólveig Sigurdardóttir, President of ECPO said “World Obesity Day Europe is a wonderful opportunity for people living with obesity to help draw attention to the many challenges they face and to call for greater access to treatment, care, and education. The members of ECPO and our affiliated national organisations are looking forward to participating and organising events again in March. It was very challenging to select the winners from the many entries we received. There were excellent initiatives throughout Europe helping the World Obesity Day Europe campaign to reach an estimated 300 million people.”