ESSSM and CINTESIS at the Launching of the Book “Aprende a Ser Saudável com o Joca e a Maria”

On March 21, at the Auditorium Louise Mabille of the Health School of Santa Maria (ESSSM), took place the launching of the book “Aprende a Ser Saudável com o Joca e a Maria” (Learn how to be healthy with Joca and Maria), an initiative carried out with the participation of CINTESIS.

The book, which is addressed to children and teenagers is part of Por Mais Saúde (For more health), a project in which it was decided to create a mobile pedagogical application for children in the 1^st cycle of basic education, which also involved parents and teachers.

The president of the School, José Manuel Silva, and the principal researcher of the project, Goreti Marques, both from CINTESIS, were the hosts of this initiative aiming to promote a healthy life style.

During the opening session, Goreti Marques presented the main conclusions of the study that his research group carried out on 909 children with a mean age of 9.15 years in 2018. According to the researcher, the results have left us “quite worried, “since they showed that 24% of the children had weight above the reference values, and 15.9% had obesity indexes.

Parallel to this diagnosis, some instruments were developed, namely a video to raise children’s awareness, which addresses issues such as food, physical activity and sleep, and a mobile application. The application is available to all and is used in some schools as a play and pedagogical tool, having been tested and validated between May and September 2018.

According to Liliana Cunha, a teacher at the Externato Santa Margarida – one of the schools that uses the app with her students – it was very difficult to work with students on issues related to healthy eating, correct posture, exercise and sleep hours mainly because “there are many factors that we teachers can raise awareness of, but we cannot control.” This technology tool is therefore a “great way to help teachers pass this message on to the community,” she adds.

In the session also participated a four-grader who told her experience using the application, and who said to be quite satisfied with what she learned.

Olther researchers who participated in the presentation were Ana Rita Pinheiro, Sara Pinto and Ana Martins who are more directly involved in the development of the book, and Daniela Costa, author responsible for transforming scientific content into an appealing story for children.

According to the authors, the objective of the book is that the main characters of the story, Joca and Maria, “become a reference in the choices and lifestyles of Portuguese families,” in matters such as food, exercise and sleep.

Scientific author Goreti Marques concluded that it is the duty of researchers to “support teachers and educators in the arduous task of promoting the health of the little ones, regarding the daily temptations coming from the most varied sources and which in this book we have called ‘the bad guys’”.

The project Por Mais Saúde (For more health) is financed by the FEDER/FNR (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-024116), in partnership with CINTESIS, the research unit to which most of the researchers involved are affiliated.