PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – Designing a strategy for action, this is the title of the second regional congress of Sio, Italian Society of Obesity, which was held in Palermo at the Marina Convention Center with the aim of bringing together all the actors involved and try to find a solution on a phenomenon that – overall – is on the rise, although the numbers of Sicily, according to the latest data provided by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità , say that it is no longer a red region on the obesity front. A small great achievement that on the one hand confirms the value of the path taken on the health and cultural front, and on the other motivates to pursue the goal without distraction because in any case the average number of people affected by overweight and obesity remains high (over 40 percent). “Obesity continues, however, to be a crucial issue in Sicily, where about half a million people suffer from it, with high numbers for overweight as well,” said Silvio Buscemi, national president-elect of SIO. “However, recent data show an improvement: the region has gone from being the most critical in Italy to a national average situation. This progress is the result of concrete initiatives, including a diagnostic-therapeutic-assistance pathway (PDTA) promoted by the Department of Health and a degree course in dietetics that, in Palermo alone, trains about 50 new professionals each year. A commitment that involves institutions, research and scientific societies, with the aim of addressing obesity in an organized and effective way, improving health and preserving resources.” The most recent data show that almost 6 million adults in Italy suffer from obesity, to which must be added about 10 percent of children. “As far as our region is concerned,” said the director general for Strategic Planning of the Department of Health, Salvatore Iacolino, “the numbers are reassuring and are also the result of an intense activity that is carried out at the level of individual companies with coordination of the assessorial level. There is no doubt that a concrete program of prevention must be implemented on a daily basis starting with families, schools and outpatient specialists, family doctors, so we need to work as a team realizing and concretely implementing that therapeutic, diagnostic, care pathway that has been defined by Sicily as early as 2021, which must be implemented and improved.”Among the levers on which to push there is certainly the social one, and for this it is necessary to have the support between different institutions and entities, starting with the municipal administration: “Obesity as well as all diseases or pathological conditions that have a dual genesis, the clinical and the social, evidently impose, indeed, demand an approach from several sides,” stressed the mayor of Palermo, Roberto Lagalla. For these reasons, the municipal administration has important projects that look at youth distress, and this is the reason why together with the relevant institutions the municipalities are committed to supporting and financing interventions to raise awareness, educate and integrate school programs.”
– Photo xd6/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
