On 29 September, EU Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare Olivér Várhelyi was joined by the Presidents of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) and the European Diabetes Forum (EUDF) for a press conference launching EU Screening Week at the EASD Annual Meeting in Milan.
Held on World Heart Day, the launch was an important opportunity to highlight the need for a more integrated approach to the early detection of interconnected non-communicable diseases.
Representing obesity, EASO President Volkan Yumuk stressed that obesity is a chronic, relapsing and progressive disease that increases the risk of more than 230 other health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and kidney and liver diseases.
Yet obesity is too often diagnosed only after complications and multimorbidity have already developed.
To address this, it is essential that the upcoming recommendation on cardiovascular health checks includes obesity in screening protocols. Earlier this year, an Expert Task Force including EASO, ESC and EUDF, published a which can help identify multiple interconnected conditions during a single appointment, enabling people to receive appropriate care earlier and helping to reduce the burden on health systems and healthcare professionals can help identify multiple interconnected conditions during a single appointment, enabling people to receive appropriate care earlier and helping to reduce the burden on health systems and healthcare professionals.
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