Healthy lifestyles, screening and medical counselling take centre stage at university sports centres

Two-year intensive protocol signed between One Health Foundation and FederCUSI (Italian Federation of University Sport). A collaboration between the experts and the University Sports Centres will begin for a series of projects that will always be conducted following the One Health paradigm. In particular, a National Network of 'One Health Ambassadors' will be set up to promote initiatives and dissemination activities to encourage prevention. The other objective is to encourage healthy lifestyles and, in particular, sporting activity. Lastly, it is intended to support screening examinations and medical consultations, again within the university framework. The new initiative was presented in Rome at the FederCUSI national headquarters.

"We are delighted to be able to initiate such an important and innovative collaboration," declares Rossana Berardi, President of One Health Foundation and President-elect of Aiom-Associazione Italiana di Oncologia Medica. "As a vast body of scientific literature testifies, human health, animal health, and the ecosystem are closely linked and interdependent. About a quarter of all diseases are influenced by environmental factors, and pollution is a non-negligible risk factor. Today's signature, for the first time in Italia, is intended to promote the One Health approach in universities, but not only in lecture halls or health facilities. Thanks to the support of the various CUSs, which are already active in the territories and will join the initiative, we will bring our messages to the playing fields, gyms, squares, athletes, and also to the entire citizenry. Finally, we expect to create a new culture of One Health among young students who may one day be protagonists of interdisciplinary scientific research on this very topic'. "The FederCUSI brings together the 49 University Sports Centres active in Italia,' says Antonio Dima, President of FederCUSI. Many young students, who represent the future ruling class of our country, train in our sports and recreational facilities. Not only the fields and gyms we manage are often meeting places and reference points for the entire citizenry. In our opinion, the whole of society must have a greater awareness of the importance of issues such as welfare, prevention of serious diseases, animal health and environmental protection. We have therefore decided, with great pleasure, to sign the new memorandum of understanding with the One Health Foundation today. Together with them we can now start new projects throughout Italia by exploiting the CUS network. This summer, then, Salerno will host the 'European Universities Games' with over 4,500 participants from all over the Old Continent. It will be an excellent opportunity to relaunch the One Health paradigm linked to the world of university sport'.

"Our University, in synergy with the CUS, is firmly committed to this initiative and will be among the first in Italia to launch pilot projects designed for young people and implemented together with young people in the coming months," stressed Enrico Quagliarini, Rector of the Università Politecnica delle Marche, who attended the press conference together with the University's Director General Alessandro Iacopini. Our students will be able to be not only recipients of training actions, but also active protagonists of a path of growth and empowerment on health issues. The prevention of pathologies and the reduction of their impact represent a public health priority. Today we have knowledge and tools to prevent many diseases, but it is essential to invest in the training of professionals capable of adopting a broad, integrated and interdisciplinary vision. In this sense, the One Health approach offers an innovative and necessary paradigm. This initiative is fully in line with the University's Third Mission: putting academic knowledge at the service of society, generating impact on the territory and promoting, together with the new generations, a more aware and participatory health culture'. "Preserving the health of an increasingly elderly population, such as the Italian one, is truly an epoch-making challenge," adds Giuseppe Quintavalle, Public and Institutional Policy Coordinator One Health Foundation -. Solid tumours alone cause more than 160,000 deaths a year, and are diseases that are typical of the third age and are greatly influenced by lifestyles. In addition to healthy habits, environmental conditions must be improved because air quality plays a role in the onset of many neoplasms. Scientific research must continue and continue to make new diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities available to patients. However, more attention must also be paid to combating pollution, protecting animal species, and studying all these interconnections on our health

'Man is what he breathes, what he eats and the energy he consumes,' concludes Attilio Bianchi, Secretary General of One Health Foundation and creator of the project. 'One Health is the paradigm shift towards the sustainability of our welfare systems and their very raison d'être. For too long we have confused health protection with the mere treatment of illness. Health is a broader, more complex and more articulated sphere. Such a profoundly innovative message, which finds in the culture of prevention, in the promotion of healthy lifestyles, which looks at prevention, nutrition, exercise as fundamental drivers, also needs to rethink the ways and means by which it can be disseminated. And here is the idea of the project. University students, first as beneficiaries of consolidated moments of prevention, participants in ad hoc research projects, and then as ambassadors, within their own families and their own varied worlds of social experience, of the new interpretative model of the Health dimension. We are certain that those who already believe in this project will continue to support it with conviction and that many others, in time, will choose to become fellow travellers in this splendid adventure'.