The Regional Secretary for Health highlighted in Santa Cruz das Flores the impact of the screening carried out in health centres and school health programmes on monitoring the health status of the Azorean population.
 
"Screening is essential to raise the awareness of the population and, consequently, identify risk factors and detect diseases at an early stage that may be associated with some risk behaviours," said Rui Luís. The government official participated in the awareness campaign to fight against obesity and promote healthy eating with multidisciplinary screenings, an initiative promoted by the Flores Island Health Unit.
 
This activity falls within the celebrations of the month dedicated to the fight against obesity and the promotion of healthy eating. It aims to raise the awareness of citizens for the importance of healthy living habits as well as for the need to control risk factors.
 
"In this case, we are monitoring the level of overweight, obesity and tobacco consumption. These are important screenings because these aspects are responsible for the emergence of a wide range of diseases that could be avoidable if the general population adopted a healthy diet and opted for physical activity," stressed the Secretary for Health.
 
According to the most recent Interim Evaluation of the Regional Health plan, 115 obesity screening actions and more than 9,000 actions on healthy eating were carried out in the health units between 2014 and 2016; 7,900 people were identified as being overweight in this period of time.
 
On the other hand, the intervention of school health teams regarding the provision of information on healthy eating have reached all schools. Last year, 750 awareness-raising actions were carried out in schools.
 
Rui Luís recalled the measures taken by the Regional Government to reinforce prevention, pointing out the Action Plan for the Reduction of Alcohol-Related Problems and the Regional Programme for the Promotion of Healthy Eating.
 
"With the implementation of a series of awareness-raising plans, our goal to fight against the consumption of alcohol and tobacco," said the Regional Secretary. According to him, these initiatives are also intended to "increase the daily consumption of fruits, vegetables and water to control the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children."