Strasbourg hosts int'l colloquium on sport health link

The University of Strasbourg organized a colloquium on Friday on sport as a vehicle for better health and a tool in the battle against social and territorial inequality.

Following the "European Bases of Sport-Health" which gathered 500 elected doctors, students, and sanitary and social professionals in Strasbourg in 2015, the European capital welcomed 50 high-ranking European researchers on Friday. The experts debated the results of an unpublished sociological study, conducted in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, on the links between sport, health, and inequality.

Since 2012, a team connected to the sport and social sciences laboratory at the University of Strasbourg has been undertaking a European comparison program in order to better understand the modes of appropriation of health recommendations related to physical activity by families coming from six impoverished districts from the four countries involved.

"The objective of this colloquium aims to reproduce the results of these research efforts and to permit experts to debate them in order to aid political decision makers to better define their strategic orientations in terms of public health," explained Gaelle Talbot of the University of Strasbourg.

Strasbourg is demonstrating its wish to define itself as a pioneering city in terms of sport activities in service of good health. "The collaboration between academics and politicians is effective and is bearing fruit on the ground," said Talbot.

The European capital has in particular launched an innovative scheme known as "sport-health on prescription" which allows doctors to prescribe a physical activity to patients suffering from long-term illness.

Close to 48,000 hours of physical activities, during which distances of some 80,000 km were travelled by bike and approximately 40,000 km on foot, have been logged by beneficiaries of the program. More than 700 patients and more than 170 prescribing doctors have already participated.

This scheme has a dual purpose. It consists of favoring the practice of sport at a moderate intensity, adapted to the state of well-being of the chronically ill, in order to improve their health. It also involves a more global objective of the reduction of social and territorial health inequalities.

The "European Bases of Sport-Health" of 2015 allowed participants to take stock of the local "Sport-Health" scheme, which has led to numerous similar projects having been developed. A national "sport-health on prescription" working group of French cities has notably put in place for 29 communities, in partnership with the World Health Organization's French network of "Health Cities."

This type of scheme is being met with strong interest from both doctors and patients. According to a recent study by the IFOP (French Institute of Public Opinion), practitioners are already deeply committed to the prescription of sport as therapy, and are favorable, at more than 80 percent, to legislative changes in this direction. Endit