Move Europe - Healthy Lifestyles in the Working Environment

7th Initiative (2006 - 2009)

In 2006, the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion launched the Move Europe campaign to promote healthy lifestyles at work, with the financial support of the European Commission.

Objectives

Description/Methodology

This initiative was designed as a campaign which set quality standards for good practice in WHP, identified models of practice that met these standards and disseminated the results throughout Europe.  

It focused particularly on four fields of life-style related WHP: physical activity, smoking prevention, nutrition and mental health.

The “Quality model” was based on an intensive review of other models and existing literature.

Companies were selected through an online questionnaire for the “Company Health Check” and models of good practice were invited to present their activities in the final Conference.

In two years, 65,215 hits were recorded in dedicated websites, of which 9,761 were in Italy. A total of 2,548 enterprises in Europe asked to be certified and 125 events (such as seminars, workshops, conferences) were held.

Main findings

Non-communicable diseases are a leading cause of morbidity worldwide and are predicted to increase in the coming years.

 According to the WHO, 63% of the deaths, 77% of the loss of Healthy Life Years and 75% of health expenses in Europe are caused by cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory illnesses and mental health problems.

All of these diseases have in common the presence of modifiable risk factors (such as tobacco smoke, low consumption of fruit and vegetables, excessive intake of fats).

Acting on these factors would lead to a reduction in the incidence of these diseases.

The workplace is an ideal place for implementing successful preventive strategies for the improvement of lifestyles. 

Outputs

REPORT

In the final "Move Europe" business report you will find the following information:

Company Health Check

FACTSHEETS

ARTICLE

The worksite as an asset for promoting health in Europe. Final results of the MoveEurope Campaign. 

Countries involved

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom.