The meeting was held on 6 and 7 November in the city of Padua, Italy.

YOUNG50 is a project co-funded by the Third EU Health Programme. It seeks to extend the good practices CARDIO50 for prevention, which was implemented in Italy, to regions in Lithuania, Romania and Luxembourg. This study started at the beginning of 2019 and includes 6 partners: Azienda ULSS 6 Euganea (Italy), Azienda ULSS 4 Veneto Orientale (Italy), Ministere de la Sante (Luxembourg), Viestoji Istaiga Centro Poliklinika (Lithuania), Asociata Aer pur Romania (Romania) and Kronikgune (Basque Country).

According to different studies, cardiovascular diseases are one of the main causes of mortality in the European Union, causing over 1.8 million deaths per year, as well as a significant loss of potential life expectancy. Scientific evidence has highlighted the importance of adopting healthy lifestyles to prevent or delay the appearance of these diseases. CARDIO50 is a cardiovascular risk screening programme for active prevention in people over 50 years of age, which allows to:

1) Identify people with inadequate lifestyles as well as new cases of hypertension, hypoglycaemia, and hypercholesterolaemia;

2) Activate an integrated care model to help modify or reduce risk factors among healthy people and promote interventions to encourage changes in unhealthy people’s lifestyles;

3) Increase knowledge and raise awareness regarding the risks of cardiovascular disease among the general population.

YOUNG50 shall adopt and perfect this programme to achieve the maximum performance, sustainability and dissemination in Lithuania, Romania and Luxembourg.

During the meeting, Kronikgune presented the actions carried out as the body responsible for the analysis of the situation and the definition of action plans for its implementation. In addition to showcasing the key work areas to adapt CARDIO50, it highlighted the situational analysis developed by each pilot within the project. During the next months, Kronikgune and its partners in Lithuania, Romania and Luxembourg, will describe the local programme of YOUNG50 to each pilot experience. They will also draft action plans that will be developed for the implementation: specific goals, activities, resources and dimensions that should be monitored.

The meeting also served to define assessment indicators. Lastly, they discussed the dissemination activities developed to involve local, regional and national interest groups within the project.

If you wish to learn more about this project, please visit the official website: https://www.young50.eu/