PROTEGELES takes part in the 4th international health fair (FISALUD) As one of its main activities, PROTEGELES, the Spanish Insafe node, provides specialised and personalised assistance (email, messenger and face-to-face) on behavioural disorders related to harmful internet content such as eating disorders and bullying.

As a part of its promotion of the ED (Eating Disorders) helpline www.masqueunaimagen.com, PROTEGELES took part in the 4th International Health Fair (FISALUD). On 28 and 29 November and 1 and 2 December, there was a team from the node staff present full-time at the fair. Its main aim was to introduce our association to the general public and more particularly, to raise awareness of our ED helpline with young people. 

During FISALUD, we distributed promotional material, such as pens, stickers, hats, mobile phone hangers, etc. as well as brochures introducing www.stopobsesion.com. This site aims to spread the idea that any person is more than just his/her image by focusing on how our society attaches too much importance to body image as well as the role that advertising and the beauty industry play in this. Finally, it explains how all these factors can lead to an eating disorder. 

At the same time, we took advantage of the fact that there were many children attending the fair to get them to give their views in a survey. This is what was gleaned: 

a) Concerning girls:

• 47.5% visit pages about healthy eating habits
• 50.6% visit pages about nutrition
• 26.2% search for information on how to lose weight
• 52.4% know that there are some pages promoting anorexia and bulimia
• 17.5% visit this kind of page and 19.2% know somebody who does so
• 32.7% think their image is very important, 55.8% think it is quite important and only 9.6% think their image is of little importance or not important at all.

b) Concerning boys:

• 46.7% visit pages about healthy eating habits
• 30.5% visit pages about nutrition
• 16.8% search for information on how to lose weight
• 49.2% know that there are some pages promoting anorexia and bulimia
• 16.5% visit this kind of page and 19.1% know somebody who does so
• 22.9% think their image is very important, 53.3% think it is quite important and 22.9%think their image is of little importance or not important at all.