Written Answers. - Women's Health.
Mary Upton
Question:
313
Dr. Upton
asked the
Minister for Health and Children
his plans to promote healthy lifestyles for women, for example, in relation to diet, nutrition and smoking; and if he will establish a one-stop-shop to enhance women's health.
[19333/02]
In 1997, the Women's Health Council was established. The council involves a partnership of health consumers, health care professionals, policy makers, academics and other representative groups and its functions are to advise the Minister for Health on all aspects of women's health, to assist in the development of national and regional policies and strategies designed to increase health gain and social gain for women, to develop expertise on women's health within the health services and to liaise with international bodies which have functions similar to the functions of the council.
The council recently published a review of the women's health plan, 1997-99. Based on its findings, it now proposes to consult with relevant stakeholders to identify principles and parameters for future action in order to improve the health of women in Ireland. The adoption of a healthy lifestyle is likely to be among the issues addressed. Maintaining a healthy body through adopting a healthy lifestyle is of concern to both women and men. Part of the remit of the health promotion unit of my Department is to raise awareness of lifestyle issues through multi-media information campaigns and the development of materials for the public. Over the years there has been an increased emphasis on the development of settings based interventions which seek to exploit the opportunities afforded by environments such as the school, the work place, the hospital and the community for a more co-ordinated, comprehensive and integrated approach to promoting health.
The health promotion unit of the Department of Health and Children has developed healthy eating guidelines based on the food pyramid, which are used as the basis to form the yearly national healthy eating campaign. This campaign aims to promote awareness of a specific healthy eating message and to provide practical information to the general public. The tenth national healthy eating week was launched in May 2002 and the theme of this year's campaign was more fruit and vegetables every day – the healthy eating way. As part of the national healthy eating campaign, the health promotion unit and the Irish Countrywomen's Association run an annual healthy eating recipe competition to promote healthy eating among women. The health promotion unit in consultation with hospital managers, community nutrition and dietetic managers, and hospital catering services throughout the country are developing healthy catering guidelines. The Irish Heart Foundation, in association with the health promotion unit of the Department of Health and Children, runs happy heart at work, happy heart eat out, and happy heart catering award campaigns. A further 78 community dieticians have been appointed as part of the implementation of the cardiovascular health strategy. In addition to community-based nutrition health promotion, there has been a substantial increase in the provision of a clinical nutrition service, and women represent a large proportion of those attending with obesity and other nutrition problems.
The current anti-smoking campaign, Break the Habit for Good, emphasises the positive effects quitting smoking can have on the individual. A number of studies have highlighted the increased prevalence of smoking particularly among teenage girls in response to which, a special component of the campaign was developed during 2000 to them. This campaign, called NICO, concentrates on the simple message that smokers are less attractive than non-smokers. To coincide with the World Cup the Irish feel free to say "No" campaign was launched on 29 May 2002 with the intention of communicating the dangers of smoking to young people. This was an EU-wide campaign by the European Commission aimed at preventing smoking among young people.
Mary Upton
Question:
314
Dr. Upton
asked the
Minister for Health and Children
his plans to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease in women; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[19334/02]
The Council for Heart Disease in Women of the Irish Heart Foundation held a conference on the topic of heart disease in women in February 2001. This conference highlighted the trends and the incidence of heart disease amongst men and women over the last 50 years. Funded by the health promotion unit of my Department, the council has published an analysis of this topic entitled 50 Years of Heart Disease in Ireland: Mortality, Morbidity and Health Services Implications.
Death rates from heart disease and stroke have been decreasing in Irish women for some years. In the case of stroke, the decline has occurred over some decades and death rates are similar to the average for the EU. While death rates from heart disease have also been declining for some decades, the decrease has been slow and irregular and rates in Ireland remain high when compared to other developed countries. There is also concern about the increasing prevalence of diabetes in Ireland, as in other developed countries and the associated increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Heart disease presents at an older age than in the past and with improved treatment and survival there has been an increase in the number of years people are living with heart disease. Because women live longer than men, among older age groups, women form a high proportion of patients with heart disease. To address the high incidence of cardiovascular heart disease among the Irish population the Taoiseach launched the report of the cardiovascular health strategy group, Building Healthier Hearts in July 1999. The cardiovascular health strategy addressed the common aspects of prevention, as well as the treatment and rehabilitation of patients with cardiovascular diseases. The identified aims are to reduce the risk factor profile in the general population, to detect those at high risk, to deal effectively with those who have clinical disease, and to ensure the best survival and quality of life outcome for those who recover from an acute attack.
To date the Government has invested €45 million towards the co-ordinated, structured and effective implementation of this strategy. This has resulted in an increased development of services across the health sector including health promotion, pre-hospital services, hospital services, primary care, cardiac rehabilitation and information systems, audit and evaluation. The improvement of these services has benefited both men and women. At present an information system to monitor cardiovascular health services is being considered by my Department and in that regard, it is intended to include the extent to which men and women avail of these services in the future.
The theme of this year's Irish Heart Week, 4 to 10 November 2002, organised by the Irish Heart Foundation and supported by the health promotion unit of my Department is A Woman's Heart. This annual information and awareness week will highlight to Irish women the importance of taking care of their heart. The aim of the week is to help women look at their lifestyle, understand their own level of risk from heart attack and stroke and to recognise the signs and symptoms. The key messages of the campaign are for women to enjoy life, take time out for themselves, keep in touch with friends, be active, eat more fruit and vegetables and less fat and fries, stop smoking, go easy on alcohol, have regular blood pressure and cholesterol checks with the family doctor and know the family history and the signs and symptoms of heart disease.
