Big interest in the Run4Health initiative at the Culture Night in Copenhagen

The student driven activity to increase public awareness on the benefits of a healthy lifestyle

Around 10 000 Copenhagen citizens came by the stands set up by students from the University of Copenhagen during Kulturnatten on 12 October. The Run4Health activity students had to deal with long queues of many interested citizens at the different test stations, which did not affect the visitors’ eagerness to test their health conditions and know more about healthy living.

The visitors were invited to test their overall condition, their long term blood sugar, to measure the proportion of muscle and fat in their bodies, to test their balance with “sit-down-stand-up” exercises and to compete in handgrip tests; “Are you the Culture Night’s Strongest ?” read the flyer prepared for the Culture Night participants by the Centre for Healthy Ageing, the organiser of the Run4Health initiative at the University of Copenhagen. The highest score for the Handgrip strength was 79.1 kg!

The last station for visitors to participate in was the “Life on the line” game, a communicative experiment with the aim of addressing the entire process of ageing in a way that is both informative and fun. The game is based on research results and expert knowledge, and created with the assistance of the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for Healthy Aging, as well as professionals from patient and healthcare organisations.

The game gives an idea of how diseases, lifestyle choices and chance can have an impact on how the body ages.

There were ten students from the Copenhagen University who both performed and benefited from this successful outreach activity. They had been trained in advance to interact with citizens and disseminate knowledge and increase awareness on the benefits of healthy lifestyles in a pedagogical way. They have certainly gained new insights and experience!

The Test stations were carried out at two Copenhagen locations: Panum- the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education.

Previously, Run4Health was carried out at fun runs in Uppsala (in May), Stockholm (in August) and Visby, Sweden (in September).