“Synergy in prevention and health promotion: individual, community, and environmental approaches”

Leaflet (includes the programme)

Prevention is a “hard” problem. We cannot just give out medicines to change behavior, and simple approaches on their own are unlikely to be sufficient. Lifestyle behaviors most relevant for health, such as eating choices or physical activity, cannot be changed just with a single intervention, however “effective” it may be.

This implies that effective strategies for prevention of most common risk behaviors must be based on a broad spectrum of interventions, targeted to both environment and individuals, and including structural changes and changes in social norms. For example, health education interventions to prevent obesity are likely to have maximal effectiveness in environments where unhealthy foods have high level of taxation, bike lanes are widespread, and restaurants and catering companies highlight healthy food choices.

Likewise, school-based interventions to prevent smoking onset should be provided together with the implementation of school policies against tobacco, delivery of tobacco-free homes programmes, bans in public places, and restriction of smoking in the media and film. In other words, changing health-related behaviors requires complex and synergistic strategies.

While there is a sufficient knowledge about the effects of some health education programs and school-based interventions, our understanding of how interventions brought at the level of the environment might work is poor. In order to fill this gap, the scientific evaluation of environmental interventions, as well as of complex community interventions should become a priority. But this raises several methodological questions, from the task of disentangling the effect of single components to that of summarizing and decontextualizing results.

In its 2nd International Conference the European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR) offers this as a hot topic for the progression of prevention science.

Presentations

Please see the poster list for the titles and presenters of the posters at the conference.

EUSPR Members can download selected Keynote, Parallel Session, and Poster presentations at the following links:

Speaker Presentations Poster Presentations

Members’ Meeting

The Minutes and Agenda for the Members’ Meeting can be downloaded by EUSPR Members at the following link:

Members’ Meeting

Note to attendants: Perhaps you attended our Lisbon conference but are not yet a member of the EUSPR. If so, we would encourage you to register as a member. Registration will ensure that, amongst other benefits, you receive our latest announcements and access to the conference presentations from all EUSPR conferences (please see each conference page for details of the presentations that are available for Members to download)

The first EUSPR conference / members’ meeting took place as a pre-conference session during the European Public Health Conference in Amsterdam on 10-11 November 2010.
Can research on prevention contribute to the reduction of inequalities in health in Europe?

1st European Society for Prevention Research Conference and Members’ Meeting

The historical first EUSPR conference / members’ meeting took place as a pre-conference session on 10/11 November 2010 during the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) Conference in Amsterdam. Its aim was to bring together researchers from both Europe and the USA, in order to highlight pioneer experiences on the development and evaluation of prevention projects targeting widespread determinants of health inequalities. The conference also represented the occasion for the formal constitution of the EUSPR. Therefore, during the second day the discussion focussed on the EUSPR mission, membership, future actions and alliances, but also issues of organization and administration. The conference was sponsored by the Mentor Foundation.

Download conference leaflet (inc programme)

Conference Reports:

Reflections on the EUSPR meeting by EUSPR member Andrew Brown, Mentor UK (http://www.mentoruk.org.uk)

Presentations:

Selected presentations, and the summary reports of the workshops are available to EUSPR members:

Selected Presentations

The presentations available to EUSPR Members are:

• Mike Kelly, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, UK: “Can prevention based on behavioural change reduce social inequalities?”
• Zili Sloboda, JBS International, North Bethesda, USA – US SPR Former President: “Prevention Science, the Role of Theory, and the Society for Prevention Research”
• Farida Allaghi, Director of Mentor Arabia and Trustee of Mentor International: “Prevention, Opportunity and Protection”
• Rosaria Galanti – on behalf of the EUSPR interim Board, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden: “EUSPR ‘on the road’ – Misson, Organisation, Statue and Membership”

Members’ Meeting Papers

The presentation by Rosaria Galanti discusses the future of the EUSPR and can be downloaded by EUSPR Members’ at the above link for conference presentations, or at the following link which contains meeting papers from all Members’ Meetings.

Members’ Meeting

Note to attendants: Perhaps you attended our Amsterdam conference but are not yet a member of the EUSPR. If so, we would encourage you to register as a member. Registration will ensure that, amongst other benefits, you receive our latest announcements and access to the conference presentations from all EUSPR conferences (please see each conference page for details of the presentations that are available for Members to download)