GAAS - Health literacy amongst teenagers

Gaas aims at developing health literacy of teenagers not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Das GAAS-Team der FH St. Pölten

Since NEET-Teenagers have a higher risk concerning social exclusion and health problems, GAAS wants to strengthen health literacy among this heterogeneous group: mental illness or substance are some of the potential health risks. The lack of data regarding health-related behavior and eating habits hitherto collected implies an even more disadvantagious situation.

The project and its goals

The project is based on the results of two networking events of stakeholders in the area of Vienna and St.Pölten.Three main points have been developed throughout these discussions and will be targeted in the project: a healthy approach to diet, exercise and mental health: 

  • Participating teenagers should be able to actively shape and change their everyday health-related behavior and eating habits. Participating mentors should enlarge their nutritional expertise and be able to implement health-promoting measures.
  • A targeted product for nutrition communication purposes will be developed
  • A further education course specializing into dietetics will be established

Intevention of teenagers and their mentors

Over a time period of six month GAAS has held interventions concerning diet, exercise and mental health ( body awareness, stress reduction, eating disorders) on various days of action. Each intervention was – depending on the location – either embedded in an already existing infrastructure or implemented as a new offer. Each location is supported by students of dietetics, nutrition science and physiotherapy. Their age also ensures a peer-to-peer approach. 
A practical approach is adopted for all measures of communication; information about health and well-being is passed on in a fun and playful way. Due to the heterogenity of the target group the students had to prove flexibility, creativity and interpersonal skills. Regular participation, positive feedback and contiunuous exchange of students and teenagers has proven to be especially valuable to the project.

In addition to the days of action targeted social media has been established: GAAS – Essen, Bewegung & Gemeinschaft

A product for successful nutrition communication

Based on a situation-analysis and experiences made throughout the interventions GAAS created a product for nutrition communication through a participatory development process. The situation analysis has shown that sweetened beverages and energy drinks are an essential component of the adolescents’ life style and that their drinking behaviour shows great potential for improvement. As a result GAAS developed a drink as an innovative and creative communication tool. Different settings (youth work organisations, schools) will have the opportunity to benefit from this project afterwards.

Development of a certification course for people with basic training in psychosocial counselling

A training course specialized on nutrition communication for young adolescents has been developed and established in cooperation with the department for social sciences of the UAS ST Pölten. The certification course “Youth Nutrition Mentor” is for people with basic training in psychosocial counselling. It started as a pilot project in the summer term 2017 with lectures at the University of Vienna (Nutrition Science) and at UAS St.Pölten (Health Sciences, Dietetics). The course is a long-term project and, therefore, a sustainable key factor regarding health literacy.

Links

Publications

Download Bibtex for all results
Höld, E., Winkler, C., & Rust, P. (2018). Gesundheitsverhalten von in Ostösterreich lebenden Jugendlichen im NEET-Status. 21. Wissenschaftlichen Tagung der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Public Health, Wien.
Gstöttinger, S. (2018). Gegenüberstellung des Ernährungsverhaltens von Jugendlichen im NEET-Status mit aktuellen Er-nährungsempfehlungen -- Ergebnisse der IST-Analyse des Projektes GAAS [Invited talk]. 35. Ernährungskongress des Verbandes der Diätologen Österreichs, FH Science Talk, Wien.
Kormann, M. (2018). Einfluss des Migrationshintergrundes auf das Ernährungsverhalten von Jugendlichen im NEET-Status - Ergebnisse der IST-Analyse des Projektes GAAS [Invited talk]. 35. Ernährungskongress des Verbandes der Diätologen Österreichs, FH Science Talk, Wien.
Winkler, C. (2017). GAAS - Projekt zur Förderung der Gesundheitskompetenzen von Jugendlichen, die sich nicht in Ausbil-dung, Arbeit oder Schulung befinden [Invited talk]. Technopol-JungforscherInnen-Frühstück im Technologie- und Forschungszentrum Krems, Krems.
Höld, E., & Rust, P. (2017). GAAS – Projekt zur Förderung der Gesundheitskompetenzen von Jugendlichen, die sich nicht in Ausbildung, Arbeit oder Schulung befinden. 20. Wissenschaftliche Tagung der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Public Health (ÖGPH), Eisenstadt.
Höld, E., & Rust, P. (2017). GAAS – Projekt zur Förderung der Gesundheitskompetenzen von Jugendlichen, die sich nicht in Ausbildung, Arbeit oder Schulung befinden [Invited talk]. 11. Forschungsforum der österreichischen Fachhochschulen, Krems.
Höld, E., & Fuhs, S. (2017). GAAS – Projekt zur Förderung der Gesundheitskompetenzen von Jugendlichen, die sich nicht in Ausbildung, Arbeit oder Schulung befinden [Invited talk]. Fachkonferenz Gesundheitskompetente Jugendarbeit, Wien.
Höld, E. (2017). GAAS – Projekt zur Förderung der Gesundheitskompetenzen von Jugendlichen, die sich nicht in Ausbildung, Arbeit oder Schulung befinden [Invited talk]. Fachkonferenz Gesundheitskompetente Jugendarbeit, Wien.
Höld, E., Winkler, C., Klausburg, K., & Rust, P. (2017). Dietary behaviour of NEET-youth in Vienna and Lower Austria [Posterpräsentation]. 4th International Conference on Nutrition and Growth, Amsterdam.
Winkler, C., Rust, P., & Höld, E. (2017). GAAS Projekt: Getränke von Jugendlichen – Innovatives Getränk kommuniziert gesundes Trinkverhalten. VEÖ Einblicke (Online-Magazin), 2.
Höld, E. (2016). GAAS – Projekt zur Förderung der Gesundheitskompetenzen von Jugendlichen, die sich nicht in Ausbildung, Arbeit oder Schulung befinden [Invited talk]. 2. Treffen des Netzwerks Gesundheitskompetente Jugendarbeit Österreichs, Salzburg.
Höld, E., Einfalt, M., Rust, P., & Klausburg, K. (2015). GAAS – Gesundheit auf dem Weg zum Erwachsenwerden. ÖGPH Newsletter, 8–9.

Campus Talk (in german)

You want to know more? Feel free to ask!

FH-Prof. Mag. Dr. Elisabeth Höld
Senior Researcher Institute of Health Sciences
Department of Health Sciences
Location: B - Campus-Platz 1
P: +43/2742/313 228 572
M: +43/676 847 228 572
Project manager
Staff
Partners
  • Ass.-Prof. Dr. Petra Rust, University of Vienna, Department of Nutrition Science
  • DSA Susanne Fuhs, MDes, Nordrand Mobile Jugendarbeit
  • Walter Wörz, spacelab – Produktionsschule Wien
  • Kirsten Akrivou, spacelab – Produktionsschule Wien
Funding
Fonds Gesundes Österreich
Runtime
08/31/2015 – 02/27/2018
Status
finished
Weblink
Involved Institutes, Groups and Centers
Institute of Health Sciences