ELISAH – European Linkage of Initiative from Science to Action in Health (EU4HEALTH)

The European project ELISAH aims to reduce the burden of breast cancer by addressing modifiable risk factors and involving NGOs and patient groups. It will develop different strategies that integrate structural interventions and individual health promotion, as well as the relationships between risk factors. The project is structured around the study of environmental pollution, the built environment, exposure to unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, as well as alcohol and tobacco consumption. 

The ELISAH project is designed to complement the implementation of the joint project "Prevention of cancer and other non-communicable diseases - Action on determinants of health" led by Member States and aims to bridge the gap between the huge amount of published results, the lack of knowledge on the distribution of risk factors in the population and the need for more research to translate scientific evidence into improvements in population health. The project includes the following implementations:a) Analisi del divario a livello europeo dei piani nazionali oncologici, dei tassi di cancro al seno e della distribuzione dei fattori di rischio, utilizzando i database JRC-ENCR 

b) “High definition” gap analysis to assess the currently unknown distribution of some important risk factors in women diagnosed with breast cancer, based on data from population-based cancer registries of the countries participating in the call: Greece, Italy, Spain and Ukraine. 

c) Actions and interventions for health and lifestyle promotion, using innovative organizational approaches and tools, easily reproducible across all EU Member States, taking advantage of existing health facilities across Europe, such as mammography services and easily usable digital technologies. 

d) Actions in disadvantaged neighborhoods to improve the built environment and promote prevention, easily reproducible across all EU Member States. 

e) Actions to promote awareness of breast cancer risk factors and participation in screening programs for internally displaced persons in Ukraine. 

All these implementations will focus on health inequalities. The priorities for action of the health determinants strand that the ELISAH project will implement are twofold: lifestyle, considered at individual and societal levels, and environment, including both air pollution and the built environment. 

The ELISAH project will consider tobacco and vaping consumption, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, overweight and obesity, alcohol-related harm, risks associated with breast implants, air pollution and elements of the built environment such as green spaces and cycle paths. Special attention will be paid to measures aimed at reducing health inequalities in the following vulnerable groups: Ukrainian refugees, Ukrainian people living in war-affected conditions and people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and areas. 

The ELISAH project pursues the general objective of the EU4Health programme to: 

a- "improve public health in the Union through disease prevention and health promotion" 

b- "strengthen national health systems through better use and reuse of health data" 

c- aim at "reducing health inequalities" 

d- meet the call indications of "focusing on the links between health determinants and other non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases"