The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on August 2, 2005
The European Journal of Public Health 2005 15(4):438-440; doi:10.1093/eurpub/cki154
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European Public Health Association |
President's column Violence and injury prevention: a public health perspective
Gunnar TellnesIn the world, more than 1.6 million people die by violence every year. No single factor explains why someone behaves in a violent manner. Violence is a complex problem rooted in the interaction of many factors: psychological, biological, social, cultural, economic and political. Times of change, frustration and conflict are breeding grounds for violence, bringing with it a range of health problems like depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviour, alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The individuals, families and communities whose lives are shattered each year by violence can be safeguarded, and the root causes of violence tackled, to produce a healthier society for all. Public health, by definition, does not focus on individual patients, but rather on the health of communities and populations as a whole, and the approach should be science-based and multidisciplinary.
Public health interventions may focus on populations at greatest risk, at the total population in order to reach the decision makers as well, and also on those in the grey area for being at risk. I think that a combined strategy is the best. Public health requires partnerships for health and social development between the different sectors at all levels of the community. Our health challenges, like violence, mean that new and diverse networks need to be created to achieve violence prevention.
We already have some tools and some knowledge. We need to find out what works. We need to go from responding reactively to acting proactively. From a public health perspective, this also translates to concentrating on the salutogenic, or health causing, factors as a way of preventing violence by promoting the well being of our society. But as we know, having good intentions is not good enough. The wellbeing of the population is closely connected to how the government utilizes its resources.
Some principles used in injury prevention can probably also be applied to prevent violence. However, while injury prevention may give significant results after few years, violence is complex and difficult, and may pass down from one generation to the next. Therefore, long-term violence prevention has to be implemented. Violence breeds violence. We must break the cycle, and we must offer alternatives. Alternatives that build up a person rather than tearing him down. Alternatives that focus on the positive rather than the negative, on rewards rather than sanctions.
By focusing on the long-term view, we can work towards the lessening of human suffering through safety promotion and violence prevention. EUPHA's 10 statements on the future of public health in Europe are relevant also for our work against violence. Three of the statements should be noted:
- Innovative ways to promote health should be encouraged. What has been effective in the past may not be taken seriously by a new generation. New ways of either sending the same message or sending a new message need to be developed continuously.
- Public health should form an integral part of the political agenda in all sectors. Public health is subjective and long-term, and it is important not to focus on short-term economic costs in the planning of public health initiatives.
- Public health policy should be based on assets rather than disease. In future public health, we should not only base actions on deficiencies, but on assets like good health or salutogenesis.
In its World report on violence and health, the World Health Organization (WHO) underlined the importance of violence prevention (Geneva 2001). Countering violence in society is imperative for the wellbeing and the future of our society. The responsibility is not on our governments alone. We will have to engage professionals and non-professionals in all walks of life in this endeavour. We can do much to prevent violence, and we have to include policy makers, researchers, public health practitioners and the population in this work. The public health associations in Europe should take this topic seriously when the Government in their countries are planning a new policy of public health.
News from EUPHA office
As of the 18th of July, EUPHA is changing office. Together with the Netherlands Institute of Health Services Research, EUPHA is moving to a new building at the Otterstraat 118 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. There are no changes to our telephone numbers, fax number and PO box address.Our new address is:
Dr Dineke Zeegers Paget, EUPHA manager
Ms Joke van Wageningen, MA, EUPHA assistant manager
PO box 1568
3500 BN Utrecht
The Netherlands
Visiting address:
Otterstraat 118, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 30 2729709
Fax: +31 30 2729729
E-mails: d.zeegers{at}nivel.nl; j.vanwageningen{at}nivel.nl
Website: www.eupha.org
News from the EUPHA sections
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EUPHA section on health promotion |
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EUPHA section on health...
EUPHA section on food...The EUPHA section on health promotion is presided by Professor Heiko Waller of Lüneburg University and Professor Alf Trojan of Hamburg University, Germany. The section currently has 468 members. At the Graz conference, the section is planning a workshop on ‘Linking health promotion and health care’, as well as an annual meeting.
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EUPHA section on food and nutrition |
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The EUPHA section on food and nutrition is presided by Dr Enni Mertanen of the School of Tourism and Service Management, Jyväskylä Polytechnic, Finland. The section currently has 188 members. There is a discussion on the focus of the section. Linking physical activity has been proposed. At the Graz conference, the section is organizing a workshop on ‘Are current policies leading to healthier food in Europe?’, as well as an annual meeting.
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EUPHA section on health services research |
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The EUPHA section on health services research has a new president: Dr Tit Albreht from the Slovenian Institute of Public Health. The section currently has 380 members. At the Graz conference, the section is organizing a workshop on ‘Transition countries' way into a reformed health care’ chaired by the new and the old president, Dr Diana Delnoij of NIVEL, The Netherlands. The section is also holding its annual meeting in Graz.
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EUPHA section on social security and health |
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The section on social security and health is presided by Professor Kristina Alexanderson of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. The section currently has 217 members. In Graz, the section is organizing a preconference meeting on consequences of sickness absence and disability pension, a workshop entitled ‘Cooperation between different actors regarding promotion of return to work of sickness absentees’ and an annual meeting.
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EUPHA section on child and adolescent public health |
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The EUPHA section youth has been renamed into the EUPHA section on child and adolescent public health. The section is presided by Dr Auke Wiegersma of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. The section currently has 144 members. At the Graz conference, the section is organizing two workshops: ‘Evidence of action – how policy interpretation in children's and environment provides us with important challenges’ and ‘Youth friendly services: effective strategies for improving adolescent health care’, as well as an annual meeting on the CHILD (Child Health Indicators of Life and Development) project.
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EUPHA section on the utilization of medicines |
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The EUPHA section on the utilization of medicines is presided by Dr Pietro Folino-Gallo of Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, Rome, Italy, and Professor Arne Melander from the NEPI Foundation and Malmo University Hospital, Sweden. The section currently has 143 members. At the Graz conference, the section is organizing a workshop on ‘Antidiabetics medicines and impact on health’, as well as an annual meeting. The section members will also be invited to participate in the development of indicators (with special reference to outcome indicators) for the Library of European Union Pharmaceutical Indicators, developed by the EURO-MED-STAT project, funded by the European Commission-DG Health.
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EUPHA section on infectious diseases control |
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The EUPHA section on infectious diseases control is presided by Dr Viviane van Casteren of the Scientific Institute of Public Health, Brussels, Belgium. The section currently has 234 members. At the Graz conference, the section is organizing a pre-conference meeting on ‘Public health actions resulting from networks: EU networks for surveillance activities in the field of infectious disease control’ and an annual meeting. Throughout the conference, the section is organizing a track on infectious diseases including the following workshops:
- Burden of infectious diseases on migrant health in Europe (together with the EUPHA section on Migrant Health)
- Health care associated infection: public health impact and control perspectives
- Tuberculosis – new tools for a very old public health problem (together with the Health Protection Agency Yorkshire & The Humber). Assessment, management, perception and communication of risk: the lessons of SARS (together with the ISBM Special Interest Group on Global Biological Health Threats)
- New vaccines: a policy for Europe
- Influenza pandemic preparedness: from national to local level (together with the Dutch Association of Community Health Services)
- Pandemic preparedness. Towards an improvement of prevention and control of infectious diseases using enhanced communication technologies
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EUPHA section on public health epidemiology |
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The EUPHA section on public health epidemiology is currently presided by Professor Paolo Villari of the University ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy, Dr Giuseppe La Torre of the Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy and Dr Alastair Leyland of the Medical Research Council, Glasgow, UK. The section currently has 490 members. At the Graz conference, the section is organizing a workshop ‘Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in public health’, as well as an annual meeting.
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EUPHA section on public health practice and policy |
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The EUPHA section on public health practice and policy is presided by Professor Mark McCarthy of University College London, UK. At the moment, the section has 412 members. At the Graz conference, the section is organizing a pre-conference meeting of the partners of the SPHERE project (Strengthening Public Health Research in Europe). A workshop entitled ‘Strengthening public health research in Europe: an update’ and an annual meeting will also take place in Graz.
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EUPHA section on migrant health |
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The section on migrant health has changed presidency. After 2 years of presiding the section, Dr Marc Bruijnzeels, has decided to step down because of a job change. At the Graz conference the section is jointly organizing a workshop with the section on infectious diseases control entitled ‘Burden of infectious diseases on migrant health in Europe’, as well as an annual meeting.
There are two proposed sections, which will meet at the Graz conference.
The first one is a proposed section on public health genetics. This proposal will be discussed in the EUPHA Governing Council at their annual meeting in Graz. The proposed section is organizing a workshop on ‘Public health genetics: European and international perspectives and initiatives’, initiated by Professor Angela Brand of the University of Applied Sciences, Bielefeld, Germany.
The proposed section on chronic diseases will hold a meeting to discuss the possible content of a EUPHA section on chronic diseases. The initiator is Dr Iveta Rajnicova Nagyova of the University of PJ Safarik, Kosice, Slovakia.
Update on the 2005 EUPHA conference, 10–12 November 2005, Graz, Austria
For the upcoming conference in Graz, Austria, we have received a total of 483 single presentation abstracts. Of these, 389 were research-related abstracts, and 94 were policy- and practice-related. A total of 46 workshop proposals were submitted as well, which is a new record for EUPHA.Submissions came from experts from 44 countries: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the USA.
The International Scientific Committee of the EUPHA annual conference in November 2005 in Graz, Austria has 37 members from 30 European countries. Twenty-six members of the scientific committee have judged the abstracts. The proposals for the workshops as a whole were judged on their quality and added value to the separate abstracts. The separate abstracts were not judged. The members of the scientific committee have used a rating scale ranging from 1 to 5 for the final judgement. The overall average of all judges and all (single) abstracts was 3.4. The average judgement per abstract varied from 4.444 (highest score) to 2.200 (lowest score). The overall average of all judges for the workshops was 3.608. The average judgement per workshop varied from 4.545 (highest score) to 2.273 (lowest score).
At the Graz conference, the networking priority of EUPHA is even more visible: our partner ASPHER (Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region) is organizing a workshop on the accreditation of public health training programmes; the collaboration with the European Commission can be found throughout the conference programme.
At the Graz conference, EUPHA is very pleased to introduce some novelties.
(i) The first one is to have 10 parallel sessions simultaneously. The conference centre is very spacious and has enough rooms to hold 10 sessions at the same time. Furthermore, the quality of the abstracts was so high, that the International Scientific Committee decided to use all 10 rooms.
(ii) The second one is the extensive (and still expanding) pre-conference programme, which includes:
(a) A pre-conference meeting of the EUPHA section on social security and health
(b) A pre-conference meeting of the EUPHA section on infectious diseases control
(c) A pre-conference meeting organized by Merck and EUPHA
(d) A meeting of the EURO-MED-STAT project
(e) A meeting of the SPHERE project
(iii) The last one is the most important. At the Graz conference, EUPHA is introducing conference tracks. This means that in each parallel session, the same subject can be found (planned in the same room as well), making the different subjects easier recognizable. Of course, participants are free to switch between tracks. The conference tracks are:
(a) EU/EUPHA collaboration
(b) The future of public health in Europe
(c) Population and community health
(d) Health promotion: research and challenges
(e) Health and disease in specific historical and socio-cultural contexts
(f) Health care: research and challenges
(g) Prevention and care of chronic diseases
(h) Prevention and care of infectious diseases
(i) Children and adolescent health
(j) Health policy
WHO/EURO column
Roberto Bertollini |
What has happened since the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in June 2004? |
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It is over a year since 1000 participants from the 52 Member States of the WHO European Region gathered in Budapest and witnessed the adoption by ministers of a declaration and an action plan for Europe to protect children against environmental hazards. The Conference theme of ‘The future for our children’ was underpinned by the evidence published in The Lancet1 the week before the Conference, indicating that one-third of the total burden of disease from birth to 18 years can be attributed to unsafe and unhealthy environments. In the Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe,2 Member States committed to coordinated and sustained action to protect children's health, and to reduce the burden of disease by focusing on four regional priority goals in the areas of water and sanitation, indoor and outdoor air pollution, injuries and physical activity, and chemicals and other external agents. The countries agreed to report back formally in 2007, and to meet again in 2009.
They are, however, already reporting back progress to a task force newly appointed by the European Environment and Health Committee, which oversees the environment and health process. Consistent with the cross-disciplinary and multisectoral nature of environment and health, they are working on many fronts, guided by the table of actions that was elaborated for the Conference. Most countries are now updating their existing national environmental health action plans to take account of children, or drafting a national plan specifically to protect children. In doing so, they typically involve professional associations as well as ministries of health, environment, labour, transport, education and research, local authorities, academic centres of excellence, and non-governmental organizations. Several countries are taking as their starting point the need for a better understanding of the impact of pollutants on public health in their country, and also the need to intensify public information and awareness that children are more vulnerable than adults to environmental threats, and that policies need to reflect this.
Health professionals have a major role to play, whether in the various initiatives to incorporate children's health and environment into the public health syllabus, or the moves to bring together professionals with parents, teachers and user groups in campaigns such as those on asthma and allergy prevention. Legislation or soft law is being developed to reduce exposure to polluted air both outside and inside, from regulating polluting building materials to banning tobacco in public places. Other processes support these activities, such as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the new air quality threshold levels from the European Commission.
Information will be made public on the measures that are being taken in each country to implement the Budapest commitments, as they unfold, and will be available on the WHO Regional Office for Europe website (http://www.euro.who.int/eehc).
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References |
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1 Valent D, et al. Burden of disease attributable to selected environmental factors and injury among children and adolescents in Europe. Lancet 2004;363:2032–9.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
2 See http://www.euro.who.int/budapest2004 for Budapest Conference outcome documents.
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