Last week 17 organisations from 15 European countries met in Cologne to discuss the work package in which RIVM is involved. The Joint Action will run until 2017.

Building on expertise from the various countries, the joint action is aiming to assess the best approaches to the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. This primarily concerns chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. In Europe, around 80% of people over the age of 65 suffer from a chronic disease. By employing the right strategy in dealing with known risk factors such as alcohol abuse, inactivity and an unhealthy diet, this ever-increasing problem can be limited.

RIVM (including the RIVM Centre for Healthy Living) is contributing to the sector targeting the collection of good examples of interventions for the promotion of health. This specifically concerns the approach to the known risk factors associated with the development of chronic diseases: inactivity, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diet, and smoking. It will also focus on inequalities in health and healthy ageing. RIVM will be contributing interventions from their national database ‘Loketgezondleven.nl’ as the starting point in the collection of good examples. The first output RIVM will be delivering is an overview of the current situation concerning work to prevent chronic diseases in the Netherlands. For more information please visit www.chrodis.eu.