Using Mass Events to Promote Health Literacy: Lessons from the Beijing Olympics

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Using Mass Events to Promote Health Literacy
Lessons from the Beijing Olympics Hans
Troedsson WHO Representative, China 29 April 2009
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Outline

• Mass Events and Public Health
• Examples from the Beijing Olympics
• General Health Information
• Tobacco
• Food Safety

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Mass Events

• Characteristics
• Large attendance
• Duration
• Security concerns
• Public Health Goal at Mass Events
• Preventing or minimizing the risk of injuries or
  ill health for participants, spectators and the
  resident population

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Why use mass events to promote health?

• Health is not only the opposite of being ill
• Large audience with large media coverage over a
  few weeks
• Spirit of the mass event
• Future Legacy
• Opportunity to have a significant public health
  impact beyond the duration of the mass event

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Beijing Health Bureau Olympic Health Handbooks
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Tobacco

• Beijing City Regulations
• BOCOG initiatives at venues
• Bans on advertising
• Media and community education
• Legacy Legal framework for increasing
• smoke free areas and increased
• awareness

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Transportation Sector

• Poster on dangers of Second Hand Smoke at a
  Beijing bus stop, August 2008. Public Service
  Announcements were shown on buses, in subways,
  and in airports. Taxis in Beijing became
  smoke-free.

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Sports and Culture No smoking messaging
Workers Stadium Olympic venue, August, 2008
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Telecommunications Water cube Olympic venue has
local area Smoke-Free SMS text messaging to
mobile phones
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Food Safety for Travellers
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Physical Activity, Diet Food Safety
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Other health-related initiatives

• 100,000 education kit distributed in the Olympic
  venues by BOCOG UNAIDS
• The training for the volunteers conducted by UN
  agencies and national counterparts

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The Lesson from Beijing

• Mass events can be used to
• Strengthen systems for public health
  surveillance and emergency response
• Improve environmental conditions
• Increase in smoke free public places and reduced
  tobacco use
• Heighten awareness of health benefits of
  increasing physical activity
• Improve food safety and knowledge of nutrition

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Thank you ??