Healthy Children in Sound Communities (HCSC)

Basic data for this project

Type of project: Own resources project
Duration: 01/01/2010 - 31/12/2011

Description

In 2004 a comprehensive literature review on "young people's lifestyles and sedentariness" was conducted on behalf of the EU-Sport unit, department of the commission "Education and Culture" (cf. Brettschneider & Naul 2004; Naul & Brettschneider 2005; Brettschneider & Naul, 2007)). As a result, a multi-sector network strategy on community level (family, school, sport club and community administration offices for education, public health and sports, environmental planning & development) was proposed to counteract the development of overweight and obesity and to promote an active lifestyle for all young people.The multi-sector strategy of the Dutch-German cross-border "GKGK" project implements a comprehensive approach for intervention: co-curricular physical activities in the morning before school lessons start ("walking bus"), health enhanced physical education at school (3 lessons per week) in conjunction with health education and nutrition information as a part of the subject "science" on primary school level, co-curricula physical activities between school lessons and sport club based physical activity and sport courses for selected target groups of the pupils (measured before at school with a physical fitness test battery) regarding their motor development and health status (e.g. obesed, lack of motor control, coordination, aerobic endurance etc.). In total, daily physical activities of about 90 minutes are provided by a sound combination of different school and sports club based physical activity programmes, supplemented by teaching healthy lifestyles (the role of nutrition, active leisure profiles, and consumption of new media) (cf. Naul & Hoffmann, 2007).To achieve more quality standards for active living, the promotion of physical activity is supplemented by education and information campaigns about good eating habits and the benefits of physical activities for parents and teachers as well as for local officers being responsible for community based policy making about environmental developments. The purpose of the "Healthy Children in Sound Communities" project (HCSC-EU) is to transfer/diffuse and implement the strategy, structure and experiences of the Dutch-German cross-border project to four other EU countries (CZ, PL, IT, GB) as well as to other provinces/states/cities outside the cross-border region of the Netherlands and Germany (NL, DE).ReferencesBrettschneider, W.-D. & Naul, R. (2004). Study on young people's lifestyles and sedentariness and the role of sport in the context of education and as a means of restoring the balance. Paderborn. http://europa.eu.int/comm/sport/documents/lotpaderborn.pdf.Brettschneider, W.-D. & Naul, R. (eds.) (2007). Obesity in Europe. Young people`s physical activity and sedentary lifestyles. Frankfurt/M. u.a. (Lang) (323 p.). Naul, R. & Brettschneider, W.-D. (2005). Young people's lifestyles and sedentariness in Europe. Acta Universitas Carolinae Kinathropologica, 42 (2). 25-34. Naul, R. & Hoffmann, D. (2007). Gesunde Kinder in gesunden Kommunen. Essen: WGI. More information:http://www.hcsc.eu/

Keywords: Gesundheit; Kinder; Motorik; Ernährung; BMI; Medienkonsum; Elterneinstellungen; Sportliche Aktivität