Healthy Body Weight among Children and Adolescents
The number of overweight children and adolescents has become a public-health issue also in Switzerland, to which better nutrition and adequate physical activity could make a significant contribution. It has been the objective of Health Promotion Switzerland’s Healthy Body Weight programme launched in 2006 to encourage children and adolescents as well as their adult caregivers to eat a well-balanced diet and engage in adequate physical activity. Healthy weight
is one of the physical, social and mental resources that will allow healthy children to better tackle the many challenges of adult life.
There is not only widespread awareness of the health risks caused by malnutrition and a lack of physical exercise but also widespread insight that healthpromoting activities can make a major contribution towards reducing those risks. Nor is there any shortage of political will: already twenty-two Swiss cantons have decided to take action and, in co-operation with Health Promotion Switzerland, to launch Cantonal Intervention Programmes for Healthy Body Weight aimed at children and adolescents. This multiplication lets us hope that we are on track for a lasting impact. However, along the road to sustainability a few obstacles still loom which this report is intended to help clear.
Our first State-of-the-Art Report on Healthy Body Weight was published in 2005. It provided the groundwork for our Foundation to aim its strategy toward the core issue of Healthy Body Weight. This new report is a complement and illustrates new developments, measures implemented both in Switzerland and abroad, and reflects on results and causal relationships that have emerged from recent scientific studies. It also presents activities in Switzerland and discusses potential improvements with a particular focus on the Healthy Body Weight programme.
The report provides incentives to join forces at all levels in pushing ahead, and to make sure interventions are sustainably integrated. If this can be achieved, children and adolescents will internalise – and act on – the message to eat a balanced diet and engage in adequate physical activity as they grow up.
