Small lifestyle changes, big difference: PREACT shows the way

The PREACT (Prophylactic Education & Actions for Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes) project is an initiative that aims to prevent and reduce cardiometabolic risk, focusing primarily on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes. These conditions are identified as leading causes of illness and death across Europe.

PREACT responds to this challenge with a strong focus on prevention over treatment. The core mission is achieved through early intervention, education, and behavior change. The project employs a collaborative, evidence-based, and community-driven approach to promote long-term health and well-being.

“PREACT is more than a project, it’s a mission to turn health awareness into daily action.” – said Pr. Evgenia Vlachou, a diabetes researcher. It launched in November 2023 and is scheduled to run through October 2026, spanning a total of 36 months.

A consortium was formed at inception, comprising diverse entities,bringing together academic institutions, healthcare professionals, public authorities, and civil society from across the EU. The project held its Kick-off Meeting in Athens in January 2024, which included 18 representatives from all partner organizations to align the vision, define roles, and finalize the strategic framework. The presence of the European Commission’s project officer during this meeting ensured compliance with EU standards.

Activities take place through pilot projects in schools, health institutions, and community settings across partner countries, reaching a diverse audience of community members, students, and institutional staff.

PREACT’s educational strategy includes several key development and training activities:

• The project held a joint staff training event in Komotini in June 2024.
• The event aimed to build a shared pedagogical foundation among trainers and co-develop culturally and linguistically tailored educational content.
• The educational toolkit and intervention materials were finalized and refined between July and October 2024, resulting in a comprehensive set of learner and facilitator resources.

Key milestones and phases of the project include:

1. Kick-off Meeting held in Athens in January 2024.
2. A comprehensive needs analysis undertaken from February to May 2024, focusing on modifiable risk factors like smoking, diet, physical inactivity, and caffeine consumption, particularly in the Greek and broader European context.
3. The joint staff training event held in Komotini in June 2024.
4. Launching  ten pilot actions starting in November 2024 and running through June 2025 in schools, health institutions, and community settings to test the materials’ real-world applicability and impact.

The needs analysis findings directly informed the design of PREACT’s educational materials. The project has finalized an educational toolkit and intervention materials.

In its first 18 months, PREACT successfully established a strong collaborative foundation and completed the initial research and preparation phases.

The success is attributed to the strong collaboration and real-world insights shared by diverse partners, including researchers, health professionals, and community educators.

• Prof. K. Papadimitriou, a trainer, commented that “small lifestyle changes can make a big difference. PREACT equips us to inspire those changes in practical, culturally relevant ways”.
• Olga R. from NGO OPORA noted that the Komotini training helped the team “build tools shaped by the people they’re meant to serve”.

The pilot actions, running from November 2024 to June 2025, were designed to test the real-world applicability and impact of the PREACT materials.

PREACT encourages engagement from various stakeholders, including health professionals, educators, policymakers, or anyone passionate about building healthier communities, inviting all to contribute to the mission.

For more information, visit the official project website.

JACARDI’s synergies with Action Grants: reducing the diabetes burden together

The four projects – DUSE, PIA, PREACT, PoDiaCar — and JACARDI are fundamentally anchored in the same mission: addressing the immense public health: the burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), particularly Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) and Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD). The shared approach of these actions universally champions prevention over treatment, implemented through strategies focused on early intervention, education, and sustained behavior change. 

A central demographic synergy is the heavy focus on empowering youth, with four projects targeting children, adolescents, and students in school and community settings to establish healthy habits early. This wide-reaching effort is facilitated by robust cross-national collaboration, involving large consortia to ensure methods are scalable and evidence-based across diverse regions. 

Furthermore, the projects demonstrate a strong commitment to addressing health inequalities by focusing interventions on vulnerable populations, including migrants and refugees. Synergistic actions involve JACARDI sharing its “4Cs” framework for integrating equity and diversity principles, providing a structured approach for the Action Grants to design inclusive interventions. 

Leveraging the advancements of technology, all initiatives integrate digital solutions  to modernize health management and engagement: DUSE uses a serious gaming app and empowers students to build their own health-tracking applications using the MIT App Inventor. PoDiaCar exhibits significant medical innovation by developing an Advanced Screening Tool and a Personalized Digital Twin to predict and simulate a child’s health pathway over time. Furthermore, PIA contributes digitally by developing a mobile application and remote monitoring tool for proactive health management. PREACT ensures real-world impact by finalizing and testing a comprehensive, evidence-based educational toolkit in community settings.

Implementation synergies are further supported by JACARDI sharing resources like the Ophelia methodology (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) to enhance Health Literacy tools within Action Grants like DUSE, PIA, and PREACT, ensuring educational content is accessible and culturally appropriate for targeted high-risk groups. This intensive cooperation across technical work packages, including collaborative development of standardized screening protocols (JACARDI Work Package on Screening, PIA, PREACT), ensures methodological consistency and enhances the scalability of effective prevention strategies across Member States.

Collectively, these projects contribute to a unified, technologically informed movement committed to cultivating healthier, more informed generations across Europe.

DUSE: Educating Youth for Lifelong Health and Diabetes Prevention

The DUSE (Counteracting diabetes using interdisciplinary educative programs) project addresses type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time. T2DM is classified as a lifestyle-related Non-Communicable Disease (NCD). It is often connected to modifiable risk factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, and unhealthy eating habits.

DUSE’s approach focuses strongly on prevention rather than cure. The core mission is to educate and empower children and adolescents to adopt and sustain healthy habits from an early age. This goal is achieved by promoting long-term well-being through regular physical activity and good nutrition.

DUSE launched in January 2024 and is scheduled to conclude in December 2026.

The consortium delivering the interventions includes partners from four participating countries: Italy, Greece, Romania, and Ukraine. The project is coordinated by Prof. Milena Raffi, Associate Professor in Human Physiology, University of Bologna.

The primary target audience consists of children and adolescents. During the first year of the project, the consortium successfully provided interventions to 463 kids across 10 schools. This work in Ukraine is particularly noted for giving children facing stress and uncertainty a sense of agency.

Prof. Milena Raffi, project coordinator, stated that DUSE is helping students build the curiosity, confidence, and skills required to take ownership of their well-being, demonstrating that prevention can be empowering and start early.

The project implements a truly interdisciplinary journey. Educational activities have included a variety of teaching methods:

• Nutritional and cuisine lessons;
• Interactive lectures;
• Physical activity training;
• Group works and physical activity days;
• Students have specifically delved into subjects like nutrition science, endocrinology, and physiology.

PhD student Michela Bridi shared that it was inspiring to witness the children’s enthusiasm when they learned how to read food labels or design meals that were balanced.

DUSE harnesses mobile technology and innovative tools to engage students:

• Students are engaged through a serious gaming app, which is a digital game designed to help them learn, train, or build healthy habits for real life.
• The project uses the MIT App Inventor platform.
• Students are encouraged to participate in app development labs and build their own health-tracking apps.
• These innovative tools foster both self-awareness and a mindset geared toward digital innovation and entrepreneurship.

In its first year, the project has  successfully engaged  463 children in 10 schools within the four partner countries.

Project leaders and participants have shared insights on DUSE’s impact:

• High school student Daniel reflected that designing an app about healthy habits helped him realize how much technology can assist people in living better, emphasizing that the process involved creating something meaningful for themselves and others.
• Oleksandr Fomichov noted that in Ukraine, DUSE provided children facing “enormous stress and uncertainty” with hope, knowledge, and a sense of agency. This engagement shows that empowerment and prevention can “thrive even in times of disruption”.

As the school year continues, follow-up evaluations will be conducted. These evaluations will measure how the students’ behaviors and attitudes have evolved, specifically utilizing questionnaires and the analysis of food diaries.

DUSE is defined as more than a project, it is a movement toward cultivating a healthier generation. Everyone is invited to follow the progress and remain engaged. By working together, the goal is to help the next generation gain control of their health through smart choices.

For more information, visit the DUSE website.