PROMINENCE Project

Obesity is one of the most visible but neglected public health challenges of the 21st century. It affects one in six adults and one in eight children across EU countries and according to World Health Organization (WHO) projections, Europe is facing a major obesity crisis by 2030, with many countries likely to see half of adults above the healthy weight limit.

In June 2021, the European Commission officially classified obesity as a chronic disease. In response, the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) published its manifesto outlining priority actions to improve the treatment and management of obesity. These actions include a call for improved education for healthcare professions (HCPs), to support more effective, evidence-based multidisciplinary care for people with obesity.

At present, the topic of obesity is given little attention as part of Health Care Professional (HCP) education/training, with the EASO calling for HCPs to help in identifying the knowledge gaps in their own community and provide solutions through education. Of the established HCP, physiotherapy is the leading non-pharmacological health profession globally, with approximately 565,000 practising physiotherapists in the EU. Given the evidence to support active, holistic lifestyle approaches to obesity and physiotherapists' expertise in this field, they are ideally positioned to play a major role in obesity prevention and management.

The PROMINENCE project - bridging the gap

The PROMINENCE team pictured at the project launch at UCD, April 2024

The PROMINENCE (Promoting Obesity and Metabolic Rehabilitation INclusion in EU Entry-level Physiotherapy Curricula) project joins physiotherapy stakeholders from four EU countries - Ireland, Sweden, Finland, and Belgium -with aims to: 

• facilitate educators to drive development and achievement of competences, 
• create new, innovative or joint curricula or courses beyond scope, and
• provide digital content and share sound pedagogical practices
  

in the area of obesity education and physiotherapy. 

PROMINENCE seeks to promote inter-connected higher education institutions (HEI) and systems by:

• collaborating to develop and standardise obesity education in physiotherapy programmes and align with European Qualifications Framework (EQF), and 
• sharing knowledge, skills, expertise and developing contemporary evidence-based obesity education across boundaries. 

Click (opens in a new window)here to find out more about the project.