Full Report from Uppsala Health Summit 2016 - Ending childhood obesity

2017-01-30

Download the Post-Conference
Report here.

Over 42 million children in the world, and growing, live with an increased risk of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases due to obesity. There is an urgent need to turn this trend around in a sustainable way.

Childhood obesity is a complex task for society to deal with. The conclusions from Uppsala Health Summit strongly recommend interventions combining an armoury of actors and actions, aiming to change the obesogenic environment, where so many children grow up today.

Strategies aiming at society rather than the child will also help us avoid stigmatisation of individual children and their families.Taxes on sugar was of course also a topic at Uppsala Health Summit. Concluding that fiscal measures can change consumption patterns, it was also argued that such fiscal measures must be carefully designed to be effective. The summit also discussed the need for actions in the food-industry and the retail-industry where once more political leadership was demanded.

The report summarises conclusions from the eight workshops held during Uppsala Health Summit, namely:

  • Policy tools to drive change – a workshop on how to construct taxes and other policy tools
  • Individual and societal responsibilities – ethical dilemmas
  • Migration and the food environment
  • Healthy eating for school children – today and for life
  • Empowering towards healthy behaviours
  • The need for food industry actions and innovations
  • Innovations needed in retail and in the food value chain
  • Initiate, manage and evaluate multi-stakeholder interventions: ECHO zones

A draft version of this report has been circulated to all delegates at the summit for their comments. Such comments have been valuable. However, the sole responsibility for the final texts lies with the authors.

It is important to keep this dialogue alive, and you are most welcome to use our LinkedIn Group for such discussions. But even more important are actions improving children’s environment. We are looking forward to follow up on suggestions for concrete actions that were developed during or after the summit and report here. Please share your experiences for others to learn from!

Download your copy of Uppsala Health Summit 2016 Post-Conference Report

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