»Za boljše zdravje Romov«
Murska Sobota, 5. julij 2006
“Roma community-reducing health inequalities “ project co-financed by EC was aimed in tackling health inequalities and social exclusion of Roma population in Pomurje region in Slovenia and in neighbouring regions in Hungary. Important part of the project was a research on lifestyle, related health problems and basic socio-economic characteristics of Roma population.
On July the 5th Regional public health institute Murska Sobota and Pomurje Society for Cancer Prevention have organised the conference on health problems of Roma population primarily to present the results of this research.
Results are alarming: half of participants did not finish primary school education, a quarters of them have finished primary school, consequently share of unemployed is higher than average.
Respiratory diseases, some heart diseases, diabetes and hypertension are more frequent among target population. More than half smoke. Unhealthy diet is more common ( insufficient number of meals, regular intake of fried food and white bred , not enough fruit and vegetables, too low consumption of milk and too much salt. One third of participants have a BMI >30 and only one third of them normal BMI.
We can conclude that unhealthy lifestyle is more often among Roma population than average.
One of the project activities is capacity building of Roma in the form of supporting communication skills ( articles in Roma magazine, Roma broadcasting, meetings), developing specific form of field work, advisory work in families, gaining experience).
Public health institute Murska Sobota with its innovative approach and expert knowledge brings crucial contribution to health improvement of Roma in Pomurje region. Culturally adapted small group method of work has already been successfully used within “Healthy community” project in the Roma village Kamenci. Final aim of joint efforts is reducing health inequalities and improving health among Roma.
