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Nutritional status and lifestyles of adolescents from a public health perspective. The HELENA Project—Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence

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Abstract

The HELENA Project—Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence—is a European, collaborative research project financed by the EU Sixth Framework Programme in the area of nutrition-related adolescent health. The basic objective of the HELENA project is to obtain reliable and comparable data from a random sample of European adolescents (boys and girls aged 13–16 years) on a broad battery of relevant nutrition and health-related parameters: dietary intake, food choices and preferences, anthropometry, serum indicators of lipid metabolism and glucose metabolism, vitamin and mineral status, immunological markers, physical activity, fitness and genetic markers. The HELENA project is conceived as a scientific construction with four complementary sub-studies that are elaborated through 14 well-defined work packages. Sub-studies are focused, respectively, on “a cross-sectional description of lifestyles and indicators of nutritional status (HELENA-CSS)”, “a lifestyle education intervention programme (HELENA-LSEI), “a metabolic study with cross-over design (HELENA-COMS)” and a “study on behaviour, food preferences and food development” (HELENA-BEFO). The project unites 20 research centres from 10 European countries. In addition, the consortium comprises five SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) that are actively involved in the research activities. The core of the HELENA project study material is an overall European cohort of 3,000 adolescents, equally recruited in ten cities from nine countries. Standardization of methods among partners is a key issue in the project and is obtained through the development of standard protocols, training sessions, validation sub-studies and pilot projects. Health-related problems have a tendency to evolve in cycles, with ever new problems emerging in ever new contexts that call for appropriate and tailored actions. The HELENA project is expected to offer essential elements for use in the overall machinery of required public health nutrition cycles. It is of the greatest importance for its results to prove useful that it can communicate with other initiatives on the level of science and society.

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Acknowledgement

The HELENA Study takes place with the financial support of the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOOD-CT-2005-007034). The content of this article reflects only the authors’ views and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Conflict of interest statement

There is no conflict of interest regarding the content of this paper nor among the authors contributing to it.

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Correspondence to S. De Henauw.

Additional information

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Appendix

Appendix

*HELENA Study Group

Co-ordinator: Luis A. Moreno.

Core Group members: Luis A. Moreno, Fréderic Gottrand, Stefaan De Henauw, Marcela González-Gross, Chantal Gilbert.

Steering Committee: Anthony Kafatos (President), Luis A. Moreno, Christian Libersa, Stefaan De Henauw, Jackie Sánchez, Fréderic Gottrand, Mathilde Kersting, Michael Sjöstrom, Dénes Molnár, Marcela González-Gross, Jean Dallongeville, Chantal Gilbert, Gunnar Hall, Lea Maes, Luca Scalfi.

Project Manager: Pilar Meléndez

  1. 1.

    Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain)

    Luis A. Moreno, Jesús Fleta, José A. Casajús, Gerardo Rodríguez, Concepción Tomás, María I. Mesana, Germán Vicente-Rodríguez, Adoración Villarroya, Carlos M. Gil, Ignacio Ara, Juan Revenga, Carmen Lachen, Juan Fernández, Gloria Bueno, Aurora Lázaro, Olga bueno, Juan F. León, Jesús Ma Garagorri, Manuel Bueno.

  2. 2.

    Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain)

    Ascensión Marcos, Julia Wärnberg, Esther Nova, Sonia Gómez, Esperanza Ligia Díaz, Javier Romeo, Ana de Prato, Javier Linde.

  3. 3.

    Université de Lille 2 (France)

    Laurent Beghin, Christian Libersa, Frédéric Gottrand.

  4. 4.

    Research Institute of Child Nutrition Dortmund, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (Germany)

    Mathilde Kersting, Wolfgang Sichert-Hellert, Ellen Koeppen.

  5. 5.

    Pécsi Tudományegyetem (University of Pécs) (Hungary)

    Dénes Molnár, Eva Erhardt, Katalin Csernus, Katalin Török, Szilvia Bokor, Mrs. Angster, Enikö Nagy, Orsolya Kovács, Judit Répasi.

  6. 6.

    University of Crete School of Medicine (Greece)

    Anthony Kafatos, Caroline Codrington, Angeliki Papadaki, Maria Plada, Katerina Sarri, Christos Hatzis, Constantine Vardavas, Anna Viskadourou, Manolis Sbokos.

  7. 7.

    Institut für Ernährungs- und Lebensmittelwissenschaften—Humanernährung. Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (Germany)

    Peter Stehle, Klaus Pietrzik, Marcela González-Gross, Christina Breidenassel, Andre Spinneker, Jasmin Al-Tahan, Miriam Segoviano, Christine Bierschbach, Erika Blatzheim, Adelheid Schuch, Petra Pickert.

  8. 8.

    University of Granada (Spain)

    Manuel J. Castillo Garzón, Ángel Gutiérrez Sáinz, Jonatan Ruiz Ruiz, Francisco B. Ortega Porcel, Enrique García Artero, Francisco Carreño Gálvez, Vanesa España Romero, Cristóbal Sánchez Muñoz.

  9. 9.

    INRAN—National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition (Italy)

    Davide Arcella, Emma Barrison, Noemi Bevilacqua, Giovina Catasta, Laura Censi, Donatella Ciarapica, Paola D’Acapito, Marika Ferrari, Myriam Galfo, Cinzia Le Donne, Catherine Leclercq, Giuseppe Maiani, Beatrice Mauro, Lorenza Mistura, Antonella Pasquali, Raffaela Piccinelli, Angela Polito, Raffaella Spada, Stefania Sette, Maria Zaccaria.

  10. 10.

    University of Napoli “Federico II” Dept of Food Science (Italy)

    Luca Scalfi.

  11. 11.

    Ghent University (Belgium)

    Kimberley Bouckaert, Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij, Stefaan De Henauw, Mieke De Maeyer, Tineke De Vriendt, Lea Maes, Christophe Matthys, Charlene Ottevaere, Carine Vereecken.

  12. 12.

    Medical University of Vienna (Austria)

    Kurt Widhalm, Katharina Phillipp, Sabine Dietrich.

  13. 13.

    Harokopio University (Greece)

    Yannis Manios, Eva Grammatikaki, Zoi Bouloubasi, Tina Louisa Cook, Sofia Eleutheriou, Orsalia Konsta, George Moschonis, Ioanna Katsaroli, George Kraniou, Stalo Papoutsou, Despoina Keke, Ioanna Petraki, Elena Bellou, Sofia Tanagra, Kostalenia Kallianioti, Dionysia Argyropoulou, Katerina Kondaki, Stamatoula Tsikrika, Christos Karaiskos

  14. 14.

    Institut Pasteur de Lille (France)

    Jean Dallongeville, Aline Meirhaeghe.

  15. 15.

    Karolinska Institutet (Sweden)

    Michael Sjöstrom, Patrick Bergman, María Hagströmer, Lena Hallström, Mårten Hallberg, Eric Poortvliet, Julia Wärnberg, Linda Bergman, Anita-Hurtig Wennlöf, Lars Cernerud.

  16. 16.

    Asociación de Investigación de la Industria Agroalimentaria (Spain)

    Jackie Sánchez-Molero, Elena Picó, Maite Navarro, Blanca Viadel, José Enrique Carreres, Gema Merino, Rosa Sanjuán, María Lorente, María José Sánchez.

  17. 17.

    Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association (UK)

    Chantal Gilbert, Sarah Thomas, Amanda Durow, Peter Burgess

  18. 18.

    SIK—Institutet foer Livsmedel och Bioteknik (Sweden)

    Annika Astrom, Gunnar Hall.

  19. 19.

    Meurice Recherche & Development asbl (Belgium)

    Annick Masson, Claire Lehoux, Pascal Brabant, Philippe Pate, Laurence Fontaine.

  20. 20.

    Campden & Chorleywood Food Development Institute (Hungary)

    Andras Sebok, Tunde Kuti, Adrienn Hegyi.

  21. 21.

    Productos Aditivos SA (Spain)

    Cristina Maldonado, Ana Llorente.

  22. 22.

    Cárnicas Serrano SL (Spain)

    Carlos Valero.

  23. 23.

    Cederroth International AB (Sweden)

    Holger von Fircks, Marianne Lilja Hallberg.

  24. 24.

    Lantmännen (Sweden)

    Mats Larsson, Helena Fredriksson, Viola Adamsson, Ingemar Gröön, Ingmar Börjesson.

  25. 25.

    European Food Information Council (Belgium)

    Laura Fernández.

  26. 26.

    Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain)

    Marcela González-Gross, Agustín Meléndez, David Jiménez-Pavón, Jara Valtueña, Paloma Navarro, Alejandro Urzanqui

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De Henauw, S., Gottrand, F., De Bourdeaudhuij, I. et al. Nutritional status and lifestyles of adolescents from a public health perspective. The HELENA Project—Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence. J Public Health 15, 187–197 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-007-0107-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-007-0107-3

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