2023-07-08 08:23:42
Exercise, like brushing your teeth, must be part of your daily routine – this way you can prevent many diseases from developing
Alpbach (OTS) – Mental illnesses are increasing rapidly. Although the corona pandemic also acted as a booster in this case, the causes cannot be seen as monocausal, explains Univ.-Prof. dr Christoph Pieh as part of the opening keynote “Prevention concepts for mental health” at the 10th PRAEVENIRE health talks in Alpbach. The state of mental health can already be seen in everyday life: 8 out of 10 people state that they are often stressed. 3 out of 10 are even stressed on a daily basis. The cause is often work, whereby the unemployed are significantly more stressed – a phenomenon that, according to Pieh, has not yet been fully clarified. Another stress factor is the excessively high expectations of oneself. As a large US study with 35,000 people shows, the optimum free time is 2.5 hours – if this is exceeded or not reached, the stress level increases.
Lack of knowledge about mental health
Even if it is scientifically undisputed that exercise, healthy nutrition and behavior have a positive influence on mental health, this knowledge is largely lacking in the population, as is the awareness of personal responsibility in this area. The lack of health literacy also leads to stigmatization of mentally ill people and those affected only seek help late out of shame. It is important to talk openly about psychological problems. According to Pieh, the widespread misconception that one should not talk about suicide, so as not to encourage more people to have suicidal thoughts, urgently needs to be dispelled.
“Rather, we should focus on the early detection of mental illnesses,” emphasizes Pieh. This is where you have to start early, since most mental illnesses show up in the first third of life. In Austria, the time between the first symptoms and a professional diagnosis is several years – even in the case of severe illnesses such as schizophrenia, it takes an average of one year.
More exercise, less cell phone
Between 2014 and 2019, exercise in the general population decreased by 24 percent. In the same period, the number of youth who are not exercising more than doubled from 7 percent to 15 percent, Pieh said. But exercise is a massive factor against mental illness. A high percentage of sedentary people develop mental illnesses that become chronic over the course of childhood and adulthood. “As studies show, a daily unit of exercise in schools increases the well-being of 50 percent of the participants, and improves sleep and concentration for 60 percent,” says Pieh.
At least as important for mental health is the screen time on mobile devices, especially through the use of social media. Because these promote loneliness and fuel an unrealistic self-image through constant comparison with others. In Austria, the average usage time for children and young people is 4 to 9 hours a day. For every hour that you use these applications, the probability of developing a mental illness increases by 10 percent. As British schools show, a ban on cellphones in schools leads to a significant improvement in school grades.
In summary, Pieh sees the promotion of exercise, but also the teaching of health literacy from elementary school onwards as essential to improve mental health. “It would make sense to carry out psychological examinations in the form of screenings in schools and to expand the check-ups to include mental illnesses,” Pieh warns of the desire for prevention.
exercise and prevention
“Exercise, like brushing your teeth, must become a matter of course,” appeals Mag. Monika Peer-Kratzer, chairwoman of the regional association of Physio Austria in Tyrol at the beginning of the talk about exercise and prevention. She refers to the report by the Court of Auditors from January this year, which showed a decline in healthy life years for the first time in years. Austria generally has some catching up to do here. Physiotherapy can provide valuable assistance here in the area of movement. For example, simple tests could be used to determine the risk of falling among older people and the risk could be significantly reduced with targeted preventive exercises. “From the point of view of the physiotherapist, it would make sense to carry out a mobility check in infancy and to inform parents about exercise accordingly. The wish here would be to integrate this into the parent-child passport,” says Peer-Kratzer.
“If you analyze the just over 2 billion euros that are spent on prevention in Austria, you can see that the lion’s share of 1.7 billion euros goes into the area of rehabilitation. 250 million euros are used for secondary prevention measures and only 300 million euros flow into actual primary prevention, with exercise, nutrition, vaccinations, etc.,” explains Dr. Alexander Biach, Deputy Director of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. That is not enough. The problem is that Austrians are “non-provisional”. Only 15.1 percent of the total population take advantage of the preventive medical check-up.
Biach also takes up the alarming figures from the Court of Auditors from January 2023, which show that the number of obese patients in Austria has increased by 4 percent in the last five years. 51 percent of Austrians over the age of 15 are now overweight. This is not surprising, since only 1/3 of the population achieve the minimum standards of exercise recommended by the WHO. According to Biach, the subject of exercise was also left to the public’s fingertips. In 2002, for example, the WHO demanded that the member states submit corresponding concepts – in Austria these did not exist until 10 years later. These were only included in the health target control in 2019 in the form of the exercise action plan, in which the social security funds were not even involved. The forces must be coordinated much better, Biach appeals.
“Movement is life”, emphasizes Univ.-Prof. dr Stefan Nehrer, MSc., Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medicine at Danube University Krems. “With 100 to 300 minutes of exercise per week, mortality in almost all diseases can be significantly reduced,” says Nehrer. The lack of exercise can also be seen in the arthrosis symptoms, which already affect 20 percent of the population. Forecasts see an increase of up to 35 percent in the next few years. The lack of exercise is also a social problem, since more than half of the population over 50 years of age are of the opinion that exercise is useless. Children carry bad eating habits and lack of exercise into adulthood.
“Our lives are becoming more and more comfortable,” explains Julia Hagenauer, MSc. BSc., from the Coordination Office for Prevention at the State Institute for Integrated Care (LIV) Tyrol. However, the convenience has a high price, since movement is lost in everyday life, she warns. “We have to start with the movement in kindergarten and elementary school,” says Hagenauer. She advocates an integrated approach, as advocated by the LIV, in which nutrition, exercise, regular preventive care and stress management are intertwined.
“Austria is terrible when it comes to health literacy and brings up the rear in Europe,” states Andreas Huss, MBA, chairman of the ÖGK. He sees a clear east-west divide, which can also be seen in healthy years of life. It is necessary, especially in the eastern federal states, to take countermeasures. In order to take decisive steps forward here, the ÖGK wants to increase its spending on prevention from the current 1.4 percent to 5 percent of the contribution income. The chairman emphasized that specific programs are already being developed and implemented. For example, there is already a program for obese children, for which 5,000 euros are spent per case in order to increase the health literacy of parents and the children concerned when it comes to nutrition. “It is a success that dental health has now also been included in the parent-child passport and the next goals are that other preventive programs from the areas of occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech therapy are also integrated into this,” says Huss.
We will keep you up to date on the talks and discussions in Alpbach. Pictures and video recordings can be found here and are constantly being added to: https://gesundheitsgespraeche.co.at/mediathek/
PREVENT ÜBER
The non-profit association PRAEVENIRE – Society for the Optimization of solidary health care offers with numerous events, such as the health days in the Seitenstetten monastery, the health talks in Alpbach or summit talks in Vienna and other places in Austria, an independent platform to discuss important health policy topics and questions about care discuss and work out proposed solutions and recommendations for action in the form of a yearbook for politicians and decision-makers in the healthcare sector. In all considerations, the focus is always on the patient.
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