Aragon will promote the creation of a European Observatory of Rural Food Deserts and Physical Exercise

The University of Zaragoza coordinates the DESERT project, which will analyze rural spaces or deserts, where the population has limited access to essential services, such as health, social assistance, education and telecommunications, among others.

DESERT seeks to promote health equity through healthy exercise and a healthy diet in rural areas and will be developed for three years in the province of Teruel, in the Alto Alentejo region (Portugal), and in Central Anatolia (Turkey).

Rosa Bolea, vice-rector for Scientific Policy, Luis E. Pablo, scientific deputy director of the IIS Aragón, Marian Franco, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Isabel Antón, principal investigator of DESERT, today inaugurated the project launch meeting

The service deserts They are geographic areas where the population has limited access to essential services or these are not available. Sometimes these are areas with limited access to healthy, affordable food, or with built environments that make physical activity difficult. In order to analyze this situation, the University of Zaragoza will coordinate the European research project DESERT with researchers from Spain, Portugal and Türkiye, to Identify, map and profile food and fitness deserts in rural areas of the province of Teruel, in Portugal in the Alto Alentejo region, and in Türkiye in Central Anatolia.

Finally, the project will promote the creation of a European Observatory of Rural Food and Exercise Deserts, that helps promote health equity through healthy exercise and healthy diet in these spaces.

Zaragoza hosts this Monday and Tuesday the launch meeting DESERT project, which is being developed today in the Biomedical Research Center of Aragon (CIBA) and tomorrow, at the Faculty of Health Sciences, with the assistance of representatives of the four partner entities of the project: University of Zaragoza (Spain), University of Évora (Portugal), Medipol University of Istanbul (Turkey) and the Monreal del Camp Primary Care Centeror, in collaboration with researchers from the Health Research Institute of Aragon (IIS Aragón).

to the act of opening today at 9:30 a.m. in the assembly hall of the Biomedical Research Center of Aragon (CIBA), have attended: Rosa Bolea, vice-rector for Scientific Policy; Luis E. Pablo, deputy scientific director IIS Aragón; Marian Franco, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Isabel Anton, DESERT principal investigator and professor of Nursing at the Faculty of Health Sciences and researcher at the SAPIENF Nursing Sapience Group from the University of Saragossa.

The objective of this project is not only identify, map and profile food and fitness deserts in rural areas, but also define the concept of rural desert of physical exercise, explore strategies to improve health and well-being of people living in rural areas, and collaborate with communities, companies and services for address inequities suffered by people living in depopulated, neglected and often disadvantaged rural areas. The results of this research will be published through the European Observatory on Food Deserts and Physical Exercise in Rural Areas.

Thus, ultimately, the DESERT project aims give visibility to the needs of people living in rural areas in southern Europe. “We hope that The results of this collaboration will help place the needs of those who live in food and exercise deserts on the political agenda., attracting funds, services and infrastructure to these areas and, therefore, promoting health equity,” highlights the main researcher, Isabel Anton. Likewise, DESERT project researchers will develop indicators, protocols and guides that will allow other researchers to replicate this work in other European rural areas.

The DESERT project is made up of several Spanish partners: the University of Zaragoza and the Monreal del Campo Health Center as the center for carrying out the study, led by doctor Arturo Aliaga, researcher in the Aragonese Group for Research in Primary Care (GAIAP) of the IIS Aragón, in addition to the Aragón Health Research Institute as a beneficiary center.

Together with Isabel Anton, the team of researchers from the University of Zaragoza, headed by Isabel Iguacel and David Navarrete, both professors and researchers at the Faculty of Health Sciences, They will lead this project that will last for at least 3 years. During the first year, the new concept of rural fitness desert will be defined, indicators of food and fitness deserts will be identified and measured, and these deserts will be mapped in rural areas of southern Europe. Subsequently, through participatory action research, We will work together with people who live in these rural areas, as well as with relevant companies and services., to explore your needs and identify strategies to improve your diet and exercise.

Deserts occur when the institutions and companies in charge of providing services are not present or are inaccessible for the population due to geographic issues, scarcity of resources or discrimination. Living in these deserts increases the risk of chronic and cardiovascular diseases. Rural areas, in particular, often lack funds, services and infrastructure. He COVID-19 exposed some of the difficulties that people living in these areas face daily.

The DESERT project, with a total budget of €638.591, has been co-financed by the European Union through the E4Health Partnership program and will last 3 years (2024-2027). Both partners receive funds from the Carlos III Health Institute, through AES 2023, with code AC23_2/00039 and AC23_2/00003 within the framework of Partnership Fostering a European Research Area for Health (ERA4Health) GA nº 101095426 of the Research and Innovation Horizon Europe of the European Union.

Source: Zaragoza's University