Universidad de La Laguna

Name:

Sara Darias-Curvo

Title:

Professor

Email:

sadacur@ull.es

Telephone:

+34 922 31 65 02

Fax:

+34 922 31 94 02

Website:

http://www.ull.es/

Address:

Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería y Fisioterapia
Universidad de La Laguna
Campus de Ofra s/n
ES-38071 La Laguna
Tenerife, Canary Islands

Country:

Spain

Profile

The University of Laguna is a public institution of higher education, operating in autonomous status under the Constitution and public laws for the provision of higher education. Its activity is based on the principle of academic freedom, which is manifested in the freedom of teaching while ensuring the rights of free expression and dissemination of ideas, as well as the artistic creation, humanities, science and technology.

Currently, it is composed of more than 26,000 people, including students, teachers and administrative staff and services. Its catalog includes 56 official first and second cycle studies, divided into 28 degrees, 16 diplomas, one of technical architecture, 6 technical engineering and 5 engineering programmes. To these must be added 41 masters and 33 doctoral programs in all areas of knowledge, five of them with MEC Quality Mention.

Health in Country

Health Status

The average life expectancy is one of the highest in the world: in 2007 it was 82.2 years for women and 77.8 for men. Likewise, infant mortality rates have been decreasing since the mid-1970s to reach a rate very similar to EU average levels, from 20.78 in 1970 to 3.46 per 1000 live births in 2007.

The top three causes of death in Spain since 1970 have been cardiovascular diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases, albeit there has been a steady decrease in the actual mortality rates from these causes. In 2007, a total of 385 361 deaths were registered at national level; 32.2% were attributable to cardiovascular diseases, the main cause of death, followed by malignant neoplasm (26.8%) and respiratory diseases (11.43%).

Lifestyle factors affecting health status

According to WHO, there were 26.4% of daily smokers (of the population aged 15 years and over) in 2006, the latest available year (WHO Regional Office for Europe 2009) and this proportion has been declining in the last decade for the population as a whole.

Alcohol consumption and alcohol-related causes of death have been decreasing in Spain for the last 20 years. According to the last National Health Survey (ENSE 2006), 48.4% of the population aged 16 and over consumes alcohol regularly; however, hazardous drinking is present in less than 7% of men and 3% of women.

The proportion of population with overweight and obesity problems in Spain is increasing though. In 1987, 7.4% of Spanish population over 18 years old
was obese (6.9% of men and 7.9% of women). By 2006, the rate had doubled to 15.6% of the adult population (15.7% of men and 15.4 % of women); when it comes to overweight, 37.8% of the adult population has a body mass index between 25 and 30; 45% among men and 30% of women (ENSE 2006). Just over 60% of the adult population reported being physically active during their leisure time (ENSE 2006). Among children and young people aged between 2 and 17 years old, 2 out of 10 were overweight while 1 in 10 was obese.

More information is available, here.

Projects & Programmes

The Nutrition Education DELTA Project

Justification of DELTA project:

Obesity and overweight have reached the qualification of worldwide epidemic and it is calculated than more than 3 million people have overweight and at least 300 millions have obesity.

One of the main focus of WHO for these important issue of Public Health is related to the relation between cardiovascular disease, diabetes, High blood pressure and some types of cancer.

Among the main causes of obesity we can find high consume of food with high contents of sugar and fat and less physical activity.

55% of the Spanish population revealed not does any physical exercise at all and 38% of the young population declares not practice any exercise.

13% of the Spanish between 2 and 24 years old have obesity and 26% have overweigh.

This problem affect mainly to the Southeast region of Spain: Andalucia, Canarias and Murcia, which are four points upper the average.

This is why in the Canary Islands we are developing the Delta project focusing on make people awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle (nutrition and physical activity).

We show some experiences that have been done as activities of health promotion.

Files related to the Project: