UNICEF and Greek Government sign National Action Plan against Childhood Obesity

ATHENS, 23 MARCH, 2023 – Greek Minister of Health, Mr. Thanos Plevris, Secretary General of Public Health, Ms Eirini Agapidaki, and Luciano Calestini, UNICEF Representative in Greece, signed a pioneering National Action Plan aiming to prevent and combat childhood obesity.

"Childhood obesity is a serious, growing global public health concern. It has been recently projected that without urgent action, over half of the world’s population will suffer from obesity by 2030, with the most affected demographic being children. By then, the required worldwide medical expenditure to treat obesity-related illnesses is estimated to be $4 trillion per year, without even considering the broader social and economic impacts. Greece is not immune from this phenomenon, with approximately 600,000 children under 14 years old believed to be obese or overweight, equivalent to almost two in five children. Today, through this multi-year, multi-sectoral, comprehensive partnership between the Hellenic Ministry of Health and UNICEF Greece, financed by the resources of the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, we have the chance to take a bold step forward to tackle this public health crisis and reverse this trend, for our children and for the nation, and create a best-practice model to address childhood obesity in the EU and beyond" stated Mr. Calestini.

Minister of Health, Mr. Thanos Plevris, stated “Tackling of the childhood obesity is a high priority issue for our government. The fact that our country appears in the top positions of the childhood obesity scale in the EU shows that we must act immediately in order to offer our children a better future through improved diet, physical activity and weight controlling from an early age. In order to achieve this aim, our cooperation with UNICEF enables us to develop such a programme that, in the years to come, we will offer us the chance to get tangible results regarding a decrease in the childhood obesity index”.

The implementation of the programme is expected to start in June of 2023 with cross-sectoral interventions across the country, with funding from the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

Actions 

The programme includes actions related to the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention and is targeted to children aged 0-17 years old, as well as their families. The aim of the programme is to mitigate the risk factors and the socio-economic disparities responsible for obesity in childhood and adolescence while also fighting the consequences of being overweight and obese that often lead to chronic diseases during adult life. 

More specifically, the programme aims to:

• establish healthy diet and activity behavior habits among Greek students via initiatives within school units of all compulsory education levels (kindergarden, elementary school, middle school and upper secondary school) with the engagement of teachers, parents and guardians.
• encourage parents to get personalized free clinical evaluation and consultation during scheduled visits with their pediatrician regarding the health, development and nutritional status of their children, as well as regarding the risk factors related to childhood obesity and the ways of addressing them promptly. 
• allow school-aged children and their families with pre-existing risk factors for obesity or other chronic diseases to get free consultancy services (nutritional counselling, counselling for changing health related behaviours) in the form of remote consultation offered by qualified health professionals (nutritionists, fitness instructors etc.) and
• refer already overweight and obese school-aged children with pre-existing diseases and complications to specialized pediatric units for further follow-up by health professionals.

Also, in the context of the National Action Plan against Childhood Obesity in Greece a new research centre, the European Centre Against Obesity, will be founded at the Harokopio University. The aim of thw Centre is to promote research, generate ideas and policy proposals and  assume an active role in the scientific coordination and evaluation of the Action Plan.  

The childhood obesity rate shows a rising trend on a global level. According to WHO’s 2022 European Obesity Report, Greece ranks third among the European countries with overweight and obese children under 5 years old (1 in 8 children). At the same time, regarding children aged 5-9 years old and 10-19 years old, Greece ranks second and first among the European countries, since 1 in 3 children (37.5% and 35% respectively) are overweight or obese. Moreover, according to WHO's European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative - "COSI” published in 2022, among  children aged 7-9 years old, Greece ranks second in the 33 participating countries, with 42% of this age group being overweight or obese.