Promoting & empowering healthy & active lifestyles of women across the life cycle
Active and healthy lifestyles are worldwide public health priorities.
Maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle across life, from menarche to menopause (covering childhood, adolescence, reproductive age, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, and aging) brings several long-term sex-specific health benefits for girls and women. Moreover, it is a multigenerational public health issue, since maternal behaviors and health will impact birth outcomes and offsprings. Specific benefits of physical activity, exercise and sports, include improved mental, physical and bone health, fitness and functionality, physical and cognitive performance, quality of life, healthy pregnancy and postpartum recovery, and healthy aging, and reduced risk of heart disease, breast cancer, polycystic ovarian syndrome, anemia, amenorrhea, diabetes, hypertension, excessive weight gain, cesarean delivery, urinary incontinence, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, low-back pain, menopause discomforts, and depression, among the most prevalent female disorders.
On the contrary, physical inactivity and other unhealthy behaviors are associated with negative health outcomes such as metabolic, musculoskeletal, and mental disorders, and pregnancy complications, resulting in devastating consequences and costs in human and social terms.
Education is a key dimension for women empowerment, health promotion and disease prevention. Health and exercise professionals are expected to promote effective lifestyle programs to enhance their potential multigenerational impact.
Female-specific adaptations require tailored strategies to effectively promote women’s health by adopting an active lifestyle across the lifespan. Yet, most women do not receive proper, evidence-based, and inclusive guidance from public healthcare systems. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the situation but has accentuated the need for virtual interaction with girls and women. Therefore, clear, transdisciplinary, inclusive, evidence-based, digital-based education and guidance on active and healthy lifestyles across female-specific biological lifespan, from menarche to menopause, would be of utmost importance in closing the knowledge gaps of stakeholders and improving the quantity and quality of advice girls and women receive on this topic, helping to relieve the pressure on medical and healthcare facilities, and supporting the knowledge and practice of exercise professionals and coaches.
The general objective is to promote healthy and active lifestyles during the female-specific cycle of life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, elderly) by developing and implementing innovative, evidence-based, socially-inclusive, and digital-based programs and resources to empower girls & women, and healthcare & exercise professionals.
The 3-arm objectives of the project are:
1) To implement comprehensive exercise programs;
2) To develop digital-based educational resources (such as the “Women’s Power” joint lifelong learning program, and practical guidelines).
3) To develop a smart, intuitive, self-monitoring, and interactive e-health app (women’s power app);
The main activities of the first stage are the development of qualitative studies (reviews, cross-sectional, pilot, feasibility, protocol) to inform on prevalence, features, preferences, usability, barriers and enablers of e-health resources and programs, and to prepare the implementation.
Specific objectives include (but are not limited to):
1) To analyse the prevalence and associations between physical activity and healthy lifestyle guidance and compliance with a range of health outcomes and social determinants in different European countries;
2) To develop the protocols of comprehensive exercise programs;
3) To implement comprehensive exercise programs, delivered in virtual and presential contexts of intervention, and to contribute to evidence-based knowledge about their impact on physical activity, fitness, and health parameters (namely, compliance with physical activity guidelines, fitness and functionality, gait, weight management, nutritional status, prevalence of common complaints and diseases, quality of life, etc.), regardless of age, active and healthy lifestyle compliance, and context of intervention.
4) To develop digital-based educational resources (such as the “Women’s Power” joint lifelong learning program)
5) To develop practical guidelines to support the advice of healthcare professionals and the practice of exercise professionals and coaches.
6) To analyse the features and usability of available apps;
7) To analyse the factors and preferences that should be addressed in healthcare systems/exercise and sport systems and digital resources tailored to women;
8) To develop evidence-based educational resources for girls and women with different levels of practice and health conditions, including disabilities;
9) To assess the feasibility, and implement an inclusive, comprehensive active and healthy lifestyle program from menarche to menopause, employing the new WOMEN POWER app.
The results will be useful to test and compare the effectiveness of the virtual and presential exercise programs on health and fitness parameters during the female-specific lifecycle, and to develop recommendations for promoting, planning and implementing tailored and effective exercise programs.
The digital resources will inform decision-making and optimize the delivery of multidisciplinary educational and healthcare services across different economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable settings.
SDG
The objectives of the project are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda: SDG3 - Good Health & Well-Being, ie, ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages; SDG4 – Education, ie, ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities; SDG5 - Gender Equality, ie, enhancing the use of technology, and to promote the empowerment of women.
Related projects
2023.14896.PEX (FCT) ACTIVEPREGNANCY - PROMOTING AN ACTIVE AND HEALTHY LIFESTYLE DURING PREGNANCY. IMPACT ON MATERNAL HEALTH AND FITNESS / PROMOÇÃO DO ESTILO DE VIDA ATIVO E SAUDÁVEL DURANTE A GRAVIDEZ. IMPACTO NA SAÚDE E CONDIÇÃO FÍSICA MATERNA
CP/216/DDT/2022 (IPDJ) GRAVIDEZ ATIVA - Promoção da Atividade Física, Exercício e Desporto na Gravidez e Pós-parto - PNDpT 2022 / ACTIVE PREGNANCY - Sport, Exercise, and Physical Activity Promotion during Pregnancy and Postpartum
CCISP_HES-OS (FCT) ACTIVE PREGNANCY - PROMOTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLE AND EXERCISE DURING PREGNANCY AND POSTPARTUM (Portugal-Switzerland)
CP/536/DDT/2020 (IPDJ) GRAVIDEZ ATIVA - Promoção da Atividade Física, Exercício e Desporto na Gravidez e Pós-parto - PNDpT 2020 / ACTIVE PREGNANCY - Sport, Exercise, and Physical Activity Promotion during Pregnancy and Postpartum
CP/704/DDT/2019 (IPDJ) GRAVIDEZ ATIVA - Promoção da Atividade Física, Exercício e Desporto na Gravidez e Pós-parto - PNDpT 2019 / ACTIVE PREGNANCY - Sport, Exercise, and Physical Activity Promotion during Pregnancy and Postpartum
POCI-01-0145-FEDER-023423 (FCT) 2BIO4CARTILAGE - Integrated intervention program for prevention and treatment of cartilage lesions
POCI-01-0145-FEDER-023822 (FCT) MIND&GAIT - Promoting independent living in frail older adults by improving cognition and gait ability and using assistive products
PTDC/DES/102058/2008 (FCT) EFEITO DA CARGA BIOMECÂNICA NO SISTEMA MÚSCULO-ESQUELÉTICO NA MULHER DURANTE A GRAVIDEZ E O PÓS-PARTO / Effect of biomechanical loading on the musculoskeletal system in women during pregnancy and the postpartum period
