The ageing of the European population is a serious social and economical challenge that calls for action and innovative solutions at all levels. In connection with ageing, cognitive decline is a phenomenon of growing numeric dimensions, which represents a severe burden for the European families and the healthcare systems. There is therefore a need to tackle this issue with a strategic perspective, oriented towards prevention and education: health literacy of EU citizens has to improve, and to this end, adequate modern and innovative training tools have to be conceived and deployed. Many health literacy actions have been taken, but often they turn out to be ineffective. Thus, it is opportune to create and test innovative and viable learning solutions able to stimulate the adults, and consolidate these learning paths through the opportune policy actions. The objectives of the project can be then summarised as follows: 1) to empower the European adults by making them more informed about their health and how to age well, reducing the risk of cognitive decline 2) to validate an innovative form of strategic partnership designed to conceive and deliver the most proper health literacy training tools for better ageing and cognitive decline prevention 3) to set up and test an e-learning based edutainment tool for health literacy (through a gaming approach and structure) built around an innovative approach of edu-training embedding professional communication techniques 4) to test a viable approach for making the training and educational contents available to the widest possible audience of European citizens 5) to deliver the training contents to adults and – through them – to families, in order involve a richer learning environment and efficaciously stimulate it. The partnership mobilised is tailored to achieve these ambitious objectives and to become a seminal project for prevention through modern health literacy training and, in general, active and healthy ageing. One expert training provider in the health sector with strong skills in e-learning (Accmed); a relevant umbrella organisational for social issues (Diesis); an austrian no profit organisation with strong communication competences (ECECE); an important training organisation with national dimension (IAL- Italy) as project leader, a strong public scientific partner as LA SAPIENZA University (Italy); two NGO (Austria and Greece) directly involved in adult education and training (in particular, the Austrian NGO is directly linked to the Ministry and it is managed at regional level). ACDC activities can be summarized as follow: definition of a common and shared scientific Health Literature contents; the set up an e-learning based edutainment tool for health literacy built around an innovative approach of edu-training embedding professional communication techniques; experimental courses in all the involved partner regions/areas and the evaluation and possible refinement of the tools. At the end of the pilot phase, ACDC will get all the evidences for starting the conclusive analysis and, if necessary, refining the proper framework conditions for the project contents, tools and approaches. From a methodological point of view, the project ensures the involvement of the users and a careful identification of the needs since the beginning of the project, keeping always the user/citizens at the heart of the project. Furthermore, an accurate and reliable scientific validation of contents delivered is assured by the high qaulity level oft he partner La Sapienza University. The expected impact of the project will be both direct and indirect and will influence participants’ life and their future. In fact, ACDC will improve behaviour and healthcare of participants, their families and, eventually, will reduce costs of supporting people with cognitive decline. In particular, with reference to the Participants, main impacts will be the empowerment of the citizens, both direct and indirect. The direct effect is based on what they will concretely learn, the indirect one is more difficult to measure and is related with the change of attitude ACDC wants to stimulate.
The ageing of the European population is a serious social and economical challenge that calls for action and innovative solutions at all levels. In connection with ageing, cognitive decline is a phenomenon of growing numeric dimensions, which represents a severe burden for the European families and the healthcare systems. There is therefore a need to tackle this issue with a strategic perspective, oriented towards prevention and education: health literacy of EU citizens has to improve, and to this end, adequate modern and innovative training tools have to be conceived and deployed. Many health literacy actions have been taken, but often they turn out to be ineffective. Thus, it is opportune to create and test innovative and viable learning solutions able to stimulate the adults, and consolidate these learning paths through the opportune policy actions. The objectives of the project can be then summarised as follows: 1) to empower the European adults by making them more informed about their health and how to age well, reducing the risk of cognitive decline 3) to set up and test an e-learning based edutainment tool for health literacy (through a gaming approach and structure) built around an innovative approach of edu-training embedding professional communication techniques 4) to test a viable approach for making the training and educational contents available to the widest possible audience of European citizens 5) to deliver the training contents to adults and – through them – to families, in order involve a richer learning environment and efficaciously stimulate it. ACDC activities can be summarized as follow: definition of a common and shared scientific Health Literature contents; the set up an e-learning based edutainment tool for health literacy built around an innovative approach of edu-training embedding professional communication techniques; pilot phase carried out by the consortium involving more countries, not only the partner regions/areas; evaluation and refinement of the platform; draft of guidelines to make this approach replicable; identifying a shared path of practical use for other organisations and public authorities across Europe wishing to implement the same approach. Main results achieved and impacts: • Provide the citizens with free of charge and user-friendly basic e- tools to limit and delay cognitive decline thus promoting an active ageing; • Change of attitudes of adult people towards healthy behaviours and self care in order to create a health literacy mentality >90 % of respondents expressed positive evaluation in the customer satisfaction. Their interest in the topic of the cognitive decline prevention was increased after visiting and playing on the platform. By a scientific point of view, it was demonstrated, during the pilot, that the gaming platform is effective in improving the online users’ performances. • The project provides to the stakeholders suggestions and strategies to replicate the ACDC approach. They have a tool to improve the health literacy in our society. If the level of literacy of the population is not adequate, their accessibility becomes almost null, both in terms of capacity to understand them and in terms to find them. The platform is fun, accessible and easy to understand. Even if it is dedicated mainly to cognitive decline prevention, it can be used to attract people and sensitize them to the general concept of health literacy. Furthermore, thanks to the guidelines it will be easier to replicate the ACDC approach to cognitive decline or to other topics of health literacy. • Sustainability of the platform: The community and stakeholders have a tool to improve the health literacy in our society. Stakeholders are deeply-motivated to engage further collaborations and to use the tool • Number of adults reached: 3305 and more than 2000 people in the dissemination activities. Indirect impact: to reach citizens and through them, their families thanks to the participation of family associations at the pilot phase. Presentation of the project at scientific National and international Congresses on Public Health. Articles published on scientific dedicated web sites. Many cooperations with different stakeholders as well as many meetings and events with local and Regional authorities in health sector. They participated not only at the dissemination events but during the development of the project, from the scientific research (involvement of the researchers and resident physicians in Public Health, professors and decision-makers) to the evaluation of the platform.