Meeting chaired by PM Mitsotakis outlines plans for preventative and free health screenings

One of the primary concerns for young people is the rates of obesity in Greek children, in which "Greece unfortunately comes first in Europe," Mitsotakis said. The focus would be on healthy nutrition and showing how easy and tasty it is to prepare. He noted that 2 million children aged 0-17 years of age and 7 million adults were obese in Greece.

For teenage girls aged 12-18, efforts would concentrate on eradicating the stigma of having a period and of missing school when parents could not provide personal hygiene products (20% of mothers face this issue, according to research cited at the meeting). The action would include free distribution of 13.7 million products in 200 schools of Athens and Thessaloniki, and information campaigns for both teenagers and adults, including educators and classmates.

On the prevention front, a program offering women free screening for cancer of the cervix will be introduced the second quarter of 2023, addressed to 2.4 million women aged 30-65. The 'Fofi Gennimata' program for free cancer of the breast screenings was utilised by 120,000 women, of whom 7,697 had had to have follow-up care.

Additional cancer prevention programs being considered by the government for its second four-year term, Mitsotakis said, include screenings for colon cancer for 3.8 million men and women aged 50-69, and lung cancer screenings in at least 4 hospitals on a pilot basis for high-risk people (current and former smokers aged 50-80 who have smoked one pack of cigarettes per day for 20 years or 2 packs every day for 10 years). In addition, skin cancer screenings will be offered free to high-risk population such as fishermen, farmers, stock breeders, and other manual laborers working outside.

In dentistry, a preventative tooth decay program for children aged 6-12 will be introduced in the middle May, offering a free visit to a dentist.

At the meeting, it was noted that more than 8 in 10 deaths in Greece and the European Union were attributed to chronic ailments for which early detection is key. It was also noted that the result of a chronic lack of organized preventative measures in Greece is to live 12 years, on average, with a bad quality of life. According to 2019 figures, nearly 40% of deaths in Greece could be attributed to behavioral causes threatening health, such as nutrition, exercise, alcohol, and smoking.