Programme for tackling obesity wins international award

A health programme aimed at tackling obesity, developed and delivered by the West of Ireland Heart & Stroke Charity Croí, in collaboration with the Bariatric Services at Galway University Hospital has scooped a top European research award.

Research from the Croí CLANN Programme (Changing Lifestyle through Activity and Nutrition) was awarded the “CCNAP Best Abstract 2015” at the EuroHeartCare congress in Dubrovnik, Croatia this week.

The event, the official annual meeting of the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (CCNAP) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), saw the Galway project selected as the overall winner in a competition of over 200 abstracts from 40 countries.

Croi CLANN is a 10-week intensive lifestyle modification programme for adults with a Body Mass Index more than 35kg/m2, delivered by a multidisciplinary team in the Croí Heart and Stroke Centre, Newcastle, alway in a unique collaboration between Croí and the Bariatric Services at Galway University Hospital

The research which was presented by Jenni Jones, Director of the National Institute for Preventive Cardiology, revealed that “at the time of joining the programme 7 in 10 people with significant excess weight were at high risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke in the next 5-10 years.”

“Only 4% were sufficiently active for their health and one in two presented with concerning levels of depression; many feeling socially isolated. By the end of the programme the levels of clinical depression had halved, there was a three-fold increase in the proportion of people achieving the recommended levels of physical activity (accompanied by significant improvements in fitness) and blood pressure, lipids and blood glucose were better controlled,” she said.

Ms Jones added: “These significant reductions in cardiovascular risk and morbidity translate to potentially sizeable cost savings to the health service, but increased access to this programme and its expansion to other parts of Ireland is urgently needed given the current trends in obesity in Ireland.

“This programme doesn’t just tackle weight; more importantly, it provides a holistic approach to supporting healthier living. Further research however, including randomised controlled trial data is now needed”

Welcoming the award, Dr Francis Finucane, Consultant Endocrinologist at GUH and Clinical Lead for the Programme said: “This programme shows that applying an evidence-based approach to health behaviour change achieves impressive objective improvements in health outcomes in carefully selected high-risk groups of patients.”