Rosália Páscoa, a researcher at CINTESIS@RISE and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), is the new chairperson of the Portuguese Society for Lifestyle Medicine (SPMEV), a position she will hold over the next biennium.

“Taking on the chair position of the society represents, above all, an enormous responsibility, since it is a valuable opportunity to serve this area of knowledge and, at the same time, to strengthen it”, says the physician specialist in General Practice and Family Medicine.

Rosália Páscoa highlights three major objectives for the next mandate: “to establish the place of Lifestyle Medicine, as an evidence-based approach to health promotion and disease prevention, to contribute to the development of research and training on the subject, and to open SPMEV to professionals and the population”.

In the words of the new leadership, “it is essential to involve the community and contribute to improving the levels of health literacy“.

Recently, Rosália Páscoa was also one of the authors of the study that showed that about half of the Portuguese adult population has two or more health problems. In this work, the researchers highlighted habits such as not smoking, having good quality sleep, moderate exposure to screens and proper management of stress levels as the factors with the greatest impact on health.

Established in 2019, the Portuguese Society of Lifestyle Medicine brings together a team of health professionals “committed to promoting a healthy lifestyle as an integral and fundamental part of the prevention and management of lifestyle-related diseases.”