Luxembourg Sport, Health Ministries Announce New Awareness Campaign at Olympics

Luxembourg's Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of Health and Social Security have reported that they recently organised roundtables in Paris on the health benefits of being active. 

The ministries noted that one in two adults and two in three adolescents in Luxembourg are not active enough, which can have effects on their physical and mental health. Taking advantage of the momentum of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the attention paid to sport, the ministries organised two roundtables to discuss the importance of implementing a proactive policy to promote sport and physical activity for the well-being and health of society as a whole with a public health objective. The event entitled "Active for your health!" brought together representatives of the national sports and health sector, as well as international experts and researchers within the framework of the Maison du Luxembourg in Paris.

The first roundtable on the theme "The strategy for developing proactive measures for the implementation of physical and sports activities for health" saw the participation of Luxembourg's Minister of Health and Social Security, Martine Deprez, the Minister of Sport, Georges Mischo, Dr Guillaume Steichen, Secretary General of the AMMD association of doctors and dentists, and Claire Perrin, professor at the Claude Bernard University Lyon and sociologist of sport and health.

The speakers discussed France's national sport-health strategy and how to move from a curative approach to a preventive approach in Luxembourg, in particular through the implementation of the prescription of physical activity by health professionals, but also by setting up a structural framework for the sports and physical activity environment.

The second roundtable focused on "The success but also the challenges of developing a strategy for promoting physical and sporting activities in the field" with interventions by Dr Charles Delagardelle, cardiologist and president of the Luxembourg federation of health sports associations (FLASS), Dr Steve Hein, general practitioner and member of the committee of the CMG general practitioners society and the committee of the Luxembourg society of sports medicine, Aurélie Van Hoye, research professor at the University of Lorraine and coordinator of the PROSCeSS (promotion of health within sports clubs) project, and Céline Besnier, general practitioner and secretary of the Union Nationale des Maisons Sport-Santé (UNMSS). The speakers unanimously recognised the "crucial importance" of physical activity for the mental and physical health of society, emphasising the need to further promote sport and especially physical activity adapted to the needs of the person or patient concerned. In this regard, the two Luxembourg ministers announced a future joint awareness campaign (linked to a new sports health label) between the Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of Health and Social Security. They also highlighted the need to make sport more accessible to all of society and all levels of ability, as well as the importance of motivating children from an early age to take up sport.

The ministries noted that these roundtables allowed for the exchange of ideas, but also served as a catalyst for the development of sport and health strategies, which they deemed essential for promoting a healthy and active society.