The reduction of risk factors and a healthy lifestyle are two socially important approaches to effective prevention and health promotion. Federal Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach wants to ensure that cancer, dementia, and cardiovascular diseases are better prevented with the new foundation of the Federal Institute for Prevention and Education in Medicine. The agency is scheduled to start work in 2025.
Prof. Dr. Filip Mess, Head of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health, expressed his positive attitude towards the new institute in an interview with the BR magazine "Gesundheit!", which was broadcast on Tuesday, October 17, 2023, but also called for an interdisciplinary structure of the institution: "In addition to the expertise of medicine, we would also need health science, sports science, public health, so that health is seen holistically. And then the population is also supported from a holistic understanding of health, i.e., with a physical component, with a psychological component, and with a social component."
One factor is particularly decisive for an efficient but effective health system: prevention starts in childhood, with a lot of exercise and healthy food. This must be promoted at an early age. "We know that children orient themselves to roles and models that are important to them. This is a challenge for the teachers, but also for the parents at home. If the parents eat healthily, the probability is high that the children will learn from this and adopt these behaviours," explains Prof. Mess.
Needs-based support continues into adulthood. Preventive sports and exercise programs are, of course, also available in Bavaria. Still, Mess sees a need for improvement here, especially in coordination: "Many programs run in parallel, which ties up resources. I believe that if there were better networking there, learning from and with each other, then the available funds would also be better and more efficiently used," said Prof. Mess in the TV report of the Bayerischer Rundfunk.
To the homepage of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
To the report "Health promotion: this is how it can succeed!" in the BR magazine "Health!"
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Filip Mess
Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24520
e-mail: filip.mess(at)tum.de
Text: Bastian Daneyko
Photo: BR magazine Gesundheit!