YHP Austria

Location

Nationwide

Timing

2024 - 2027

The local context

Self-esteem is closely related to physical and mental well-being. Low self-esteem can result in decisions that lead to unhealthy lifestyle choices, e.g. emotional eating to supress negative emotions such as stress and anxiety.1

Building young people’s resilience, coping strategies and confidence can support their ability to make informed decisions about their health. Research linking resilience with better diet quality highlights the connection between emotional well-being and healthier lifestyle choices.2

These choices also have implications for long-term health. Unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful alcohol consumption are key risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer, diabetes, heart disease and chronic respiratory disease. Supporting healthier behaviours from a young age can help reduce the risk of these diseases in later life.3

However, the promotion of health literacy & resilience is currently only practiced in 1 out of 8 Austrian schools (13%) from the 5th school year onwards (10-18 year olds).4

Promoting health literacy and resilience is therefore an important foundation for helping young people build their knowledge and confidence to make healthier lifestyle choices—supporting their well-being today and helping reduce their future risk of NCDs.

Our objectives

To help young people build their knowledge and confidence to make healthier lifestyle choices that can help reduce their future risks of NCDs.

By strengthening their resilience, the programme aims to strengthen their health-related behaviours. The central approach focuses on helping young people recognise their own strengths and potential to subsequently make healthier choices in their lives.  

Our programme

Stärken stärken  (Strengthening strengths)
  • In partnership with SIPCAN we are delivering a school-based learning programme for children and adolescents aged 12 to 15, focused on equipping young people with the emotional resilience and self-confidence to make healthier lifestyle choices in areas such as nutrition and physical exercise, which can help reduce the risk of NCDs in later life.
  • The core component of the programme is a free brochure, ‘Strengthening Strengths’, accompanied by a 'personal strengths' profile and a information postcard that can be used by students to build on their own potential. The materials are designed to be used independently by teachers and integrated into lessons without the need for lengthy preparation. Further supporting content and materials are also in development, to further extend the reach of the programme. 
  • Schools with a higher ratio of marginalised groups and/or in under-resourced environments will be prioritised for free workshops.
  • Additionally, AstraZeneca employees plan to volunteer at some participating schools from 2025.
  • We aim to directly reach 50,000 young people each year with our programme.

 

Our partners

SIPCAN (Special Institute for Preventive Cardiology and Nutrition) is a non-profit, scientific organisation that implements health promotion programmes throughout Austria with a multidisciplinary team of experts. Founded in 2005, their goal is to encourage healthier behaviours among Austrian children through school programmes to prevent metabolic diseases.

www.sipcan.at

Photo credit: AstraZeneca/APA-Fotoservice/Juhasz

References:

1. Lacomba-Trejo L, Mateu-Mollá J, Bellegarde-Nunes MD, Delhom I. [Are Coping Strategies, Emotional Abilities, and Resilience Predictors of Well-Being? Comparison of Linear and Non-Linear Methodologies](https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127478). *International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health*. 2022;19(12):7478.

2. Robert M, Shankland R, Bellicha A, Kesse-Guyot E, Deschasaux-Tanguy M, Andreeva VA, Srour B, Hercberg S, Touvier M, Leys C, Péneau S. [Associations Between Resilience and Food Intake Are Mediated by Emotional Eating in the NutriNet-Santé Study](https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxac124). *The Journal of Nutrition*. 2022;152(8):1907–1915.

3. World Health Organization. [Noncommunicable diseases](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases). 25 September 2025.

4. Data on file, SIPCAN, 2024.