Hai Phong works to prevent lifestyle diseases

Students at Dong My Primary School in Hanoi’s Thanh Tri district attend a swimming lesson (Photo: VNA)

Hai
Phong (VNA) – An event aiming to raise public awareness about
was held in the northern port city of Hai
Phong on September 8.

The
event, held by the Centre for Preventive Medicine of city and Kagawa
Prefecture of Japan, is part of a project to prevent lifestyle-related diseases
in Hai Phong city.

Addressing
the event, Director of the municipal Centre for Preventive Medicine Do Manh
Cuong said that the project was built with support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and is being implemented
along with Kagawa Prefecture and the Department of Education and Training of
the city.

The first phase of the project was launched in
2010-2014, which focused on the training and capacity enhancement for health
workers of the municipal Centre for Preventive Medicine. Meanwhile,
the second phase building of preventive models against lifestyle diseases began
in 2016 and runs until 2019.

The
project aims to establish a model against and disseminate
information to all local schools, he noted.

Furthermore,
the project will provide training for health workers in schools, as well as
work to integrate the model into school curricula and arrange additional refresher
courses if needed.

In
2016-2017, the Hai Phong’s Centre for Preventive Medicine held medical
examinations and surveyed eating habits and lifestyle to assess nutrition,
obesity rate and related factors of students in two local primary schools.

The
results showed that the rate of overweight students in Dinh Tien Hoang and Le
Hong Phong schools remained high at 48.7 percent and 51.8 percent, while the obesity
rate stood at 22.9 percent and 24.1 percent, respectively.

Many
students were reported to have high-risk habits that lead to excess weight and
obesity, while most of only participate in physical activities at school.-VNA