About the project

EDU-FIT: INCLUSIVE SOCIAL EDUCATION FIT FOR HEALTHY LIFE-STYLE: PREVENTING OBESITY IN YOUNG ADULTS

EDU-FIT is an international research and interdisciplinary project, which aims at raising awareness about the importance of developing healthy lifestyle habits and creating sustainable methods and practices to prevent obesity and overweight among contemporary generations of students and other target groups. The project’s outcome will be a multilingual digital handbook which will be used as a guideline for developing  healthy lifestyle habits and preventing obesity in the student population. The handbook will address the key issues of INCLUSION,INNOVATION, and SUSTAINABILITY. Another outcome will be a development and an implementation of an elective innovative curriculum on an active lifestyle and prevention of overweight in existing study programs to create, inform and disseminate policies to tackle obesity among the young generation (students).

According to the World Health Organization (2022), over one billion people worldwide are obese, including 650 million adults, 340 million adolescents, and 39 million children. Within higher education study programs, students are rarely offered any curricula or multilingual didactic materials which will inform young people about the problems associated with obesity and overweight. The goal of the project is also to develop appropriate, multilingual sensitive communication skills, as the use of inappropriate terminology may have negative consequences for an individual who faces problems with overweight or obesity.

Poor diet and physical inactivity directly affect life expectancy and quality for millions of citizens as well as the efficiency and sustainability of health systems. Up to 7% of EU health budgets are spent yearly on diseases linked to obesity. Additional costs result from loss of productivity due to health problems and premature death (2.8 million deaths per year from causes associated with overweight and obesity). The project aims at offering a more direct, effective, efficient, and sustainable way of educating students from all studying programs (not only students from medical and pharmaceutic) on the importance of developing healthy lifestyle habits and preventing obesity. The project aims at empowering individuals with much-needed knowledge in this field and improving their quality of life by developing their multilingual (digital) health lifestyle literacy. 

Objectives of the project:

• Analysis of data and examples of best practices at higher education institutions, which are already developing practices for a healthy lifestyle to prevent overweight and obesity among adolescents.

• Preparation, design and implementation of an online multilingual handbook which will provide recommendations for lifestyle changes to prevent obesity and overweight.

• Preparation of practical guidelines and instructions for developing healthy food menus in student dormitories and canteens.

• Development of communication skills in the field of obesity and overweight and an appropriate multilingual terminology.

• Preparation of a curriculum and didactic material for an innovative elective course which aims at raising students' awareness of a healthy lifestyle.

• Implementation of the curriculum, manual and other didactic material.

Results of the project:

• Multilingual interactive and digital handbook.

• New curriculum for higher education programs.

• Implementation of the curriculum in existing studying programs.

• Guidelines for appropriate sensitive communication in the field of overweight among students.

• Dissemination of the results of research and project work.

• Final international conference.

•  Scientific monography.