Nutrition and Physical Activity: Health Information Sources in EU Member States, and Activities in the Commission, WHO, and European Networks

One important reason for the multitude of research activities in this field is because physical inactivity and nutrition are significant risk factors for many common non-communicable diseases. During the past decades physical inactivity and high dietary fat intakes have become increasingly prevalent in people’s daily lives in industrialised countries. To prevent and to tackle these major diseases, there is a need for a much better understanding of the basic biological and underlying patho-physiological processes, as well as more relevant baseline data describing food intakes and physical activity habits amongst the general population.

Being aware of the importance of nutrition and physical activity for health status a multitude of projects with different scopes and methodologies has arisen. This variety makes it necessary to bring the results of these activities into a coordinated framework.

Wilhelm Kirch is Chair of the Institute for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the Medical Faculty of Dresden University of Technology.  He is a past president of the European Public Health Association.  He published Extreme Weather Events and Public Health Responses (2005) with Springer, and he is editor of our forthcoming Encyclopedia of Public Health (2008).