The Italian Society for Cardiovascular Prevention and the Slovenian Heart Foundation conducted a study aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle to protect public health, especially in the area of cardiovascular diseases. This study specifically focused on adolescents, who are notoriously more vulnerable and more exposed to aggressive food marketing tactics.
During the project, seminars on healthy lifestyle for students were conducted and evaluated using questionnaires administered before and after the seminar. A key part of the project was the seminars by led by filmmakers on how to make short videos. Participating students integrated their knowledge of healthy lifestyle (e.g. healthy nutrition, physical activity, not smoking) into making short videos. The results of the survey showed a +57.8% improvement in the Italian students’ knowledge and a +15.0% improvement in the Slovenian students’ knowledge (that was already quite high before the seminars). The authors conclude that making short videos as a way of disseminating key messages on healthy lifestyle on social media amongst peers, is a promising innovative approach to address young people from different countries with public health messages.
Funded by the European Heart Network, this study was published in February 2021 in the Annals of Public Health and Research.