In salute in Sapienza

Background and objective: The growing impact of chronic degenerative pathologies (such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease) requires and pushes towards the development of new preventive strategies to reduce the incidence and prevalence of these diseases. Lifestyle changes, especially related to the Mediterranean Diet (MD), have the potential to modify disease outcomes and ultimately costs related to their management. The Mediterranean dietary pattern (MDP) is a useful tool in the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases, and its adoption has significantly beneficial public health implications. The rise in chronic diseases, stresses the need to retain a healthy workforce. Many chronic diseases are linked to unhealthy lifestyles and stress. Fortunately, in many cases the severity chronic disease can be altered and improved by appropriate nutrition, increased physical activity, smoking cessation and reduced alcohol consumption. Unfortunately, high level of stress and unhealthy lifestyles are very common among university employees and students. This calls for appropriate action focusing on improving and maintaining university employees and students’ health. Settings such as the workplace and the university, in particular, have been established as one of the priority settings for health promotion into the 21st century, as they can reach a great range of people of diverse backgrounds. Therefore, the proposed project examined university employees’ and students’ health and well-being, with the overall aim to improve and promote health in “Sapienza” University of Rome. Material and methods: Phase 1: The first part of the project followed a cross-sectional design. In order to identify areas of health-promotion and prevention, employee and student health were assessed through a self-administered questionnaire. Both groups participated in survey based on existing and validated instruments: Socio-demographic factors; Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ); Questionnaire on alcohol consumption (Audit c); Questionnaire on smoking habit and tobacco consumption (e.g. Fagerström Test); Questionnaire for the evaluation of physical activity (IPAQ); Questionnaire on the health related quality of life (SF-12). The project provides the establishment of a pilot center of preventive medicine and health care and it was created an ad hoc website dedicated to these issues. It could be visualized on the following link: https://dspmi.uniroma1.it/strutture/progetto-preveniamo In progress: Phase 2: based on the results of the first part target-oriented workplace and university health promotion efforts will be developed. Phase 3: it will involve the evaluation and monitoring of the project. Evaluation and monitoring is an important in ensuring the ongoing development of the project as well as safeguarding that goals, objectives and strategies are being met. Evaluation will take place through questionnaires. Results: On 760 University people, the mean score was 5 (SD 1.71; range:0-10). The majority of the students/employees (n.632; 83.2%) showed a score < 6.99, indicating that they do not respect the rules of the MD; on the contrary, only 128 (16.8%) exceeded a score of 7, and therefore adhered in varying degrees. In detail, no one reached the maximum score of 12 and no one of 11. The maximum score gained was 10 for only 2 people (0.3%). By binary logistic regression, resulted that the likelihood of adhering to healthy eating habits increase in older people and to be an employee could reduce the likelihood of adhering to the Mediterranean dietary pattern. About 23.1% declared to smoke cigarettes, 52.2% in the last 7 days never performed vigorous physical activities and 21.2% never performed moderate physical activities. A percentage of 45% of the sample in the last 7 days walked for at least 10 minutes every day. Only 5.5% of the sample answered “excellent” to the question on own health perception, 29.7% declared “very good”, 50.1% “good”, 13.3% “not very good”, 1.3% poor. Most of the sample (n. 256; 33.7%) consumes alcoholic beverages 2-4 times a week and for n.151 (19.9%) was happened to drink more than six glasses once a month. Conclusions This study is a good starting point for carrying out larger study, with repeated health promotion interventions over time and long-term efficacy evaluation.