Joined the programme in 2018
Cities for Better Health Madrid was launched in 2018 together with the city’s government institution responsible for health promotion and disease prevention; Madrid Salud, as the core local partner.
There are more than 600.000 adults living with diabetes in the Autonomous Region of Madrid, half of them are undiagnosed. The city of Madrid is the most populated city of the country with more than 3,3 million inhabitants and a prevalence of diabetes of approximately 10% of its population.1
Addressing obesity is a priority for Madrid because almost half of the city’s residents are overweight or living with obesity.2 The problem is not limited to the city’s adult population; 40.9% of children between the ages of 3 and 12 are overweight or living with obesity.3
Key facts and figures
47%
of adults are overweight, of which 12,1% are living with obesity2
40.9%
of children between the ages of three and 12 are overweight, of which 15,8% are living with obesity3
The city of Madrid is aware of the scope of diabetes in the urban environment and the need for a specific approach to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. Therefore, Madrid Salud has decided to collaborate with Cities for Better Health to analyse the situation of diabetes in the city.
Since 2018 the Cities for Better Health partners in Madrid have been focusing on the ‘Food, Physical Activity and Health’ Programme (ALAS - Alimentación, Actividad física y Salud). The programme was established by Madrid Salud more than 10 years ago and is driving awareness about how habits of healthy food and physical activity can improve quality of life. For a decade the ALAS programme has been taking action to promote healthy living among Madrid’s citizens by running workshops focusing on how healthy lifestyle can reduce their risk of disease.
Cities for Better Health has helped assess the efficacy of this programme and is collaborating on new diabetes prevention initiatives. An informal report based on the Cities for Better Health research conducted with the data collected from 1,629 people indicates that the ALAS programme interventions are working. An impressive 85% of the participants in the high-risk programme managed to lose weight, and 35% of the participants classified as prediabetic managed to normalise their blood sugar levels.
"In the city of Madrid, we are aware of the importance of
addressing obesity and preventing type 2 diabetes to improve the
quality of life of citizens. With this objective we have been
working for 8 years through the Food, Physical Activity and Health
programme to promote a healthy lifestyle and prevent these diseases.
We believe that our participation in the CBH project will boost our
actions in this regard."
— Antonio Prieto, General Manager, Madrid Salud
Download Madrid action case (community gardens)
Download Madrid action case (ALAS programme)
To learn more about the ALAS programme you can visit the local website here (in Spanish)
María Urtasun, Sebastiá March. Análisis rule of halves de la Diabetes en Madrid. 2020; Estudio de Prevalencia de Diabetes Mellitus y Riesgo Cardiovascular en población adulta, Comunidad de Madrid – PREDIMERC; Prevalencia de diabetes mellitus en el ámbito de la atención primaria española y su asociación con factores de riesgo cardiovascular y enfermedades cardiovasculares. Estudio SIMETAP-DM
Díaz Olalla J. M. (Dirección técnica); Benítez Robredo M. T., Rodríguez Pérez M., y Sanz Cuesta M. R. (Coordinación). Estudio de Salud de la Ciudad de Madrid 2018. Madrid Salud, Ayuntamiento de Madrid; 2020
Díaz Olalla JM, Junco Torres I, Rodríguez Pérez M. Estudio de la situación nutricional de la población infantil en la ciudad de Madrid: estado ponderal y su relación con la seguridad de acceso económico a los alimentos. 2017.
