The Cypriot Children’s Health and Environment Observatory is an initiative supported by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth and coordinated by the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health of the Cyprus University of Technology in collaboration with the Center of Excellence for Biobanking and Biomedical Research of the University of Cyprus.
The Observatory is part of an international network of research organizations dealing with the systematic observation of health and environmental indicators of children in 5 Mediterranean countries (CHILDREN_FIRST).
Main aim: Systematically investigate the exposure of elementary school children to various environmental factors (eg, lifestyle, home/school environment) and their relationship with the development of chronic diseases.
Vision: Establish a world-class research infrastructure specializing in the development and application of personalized medicine/prevention models towards improved disease prevention and prediction in children.
Mission: Design and apply research of the highest quality standards, education, advocacy and outreach protocols and activities towards improved disease prevention and prediction models; this will be achieved using the principles of personalized prevention and the suite of exposomic tools to characterize the environmental determinants of temporal disease process dynamics for the children of the Mediterranean region, and beyond.
Why was the Observatory created?
- To characterize environmental factors and the health profile of primary school children from different regions of Cyprus at six different points in time.
- To investigate potential associations between exposure to multiple environmental factors and health indicators, as typically occur in our daily lives.
- To promote the healthy development and progress of children and support their learning abilities.
- To serve as the foundation for the creation of a long-term infrastructure for further research to benefit the health and environment of children in Cyprus.
- To propose policies and interventions that will improve children’s health and reduce the likelihood of non-communicable diseases in the future.
What does participation in the Observatory mean?
Assessment of environmental factors and health indicators for more than 350 participating children in 22 public primary schools across Cyprus once a year, for six years (a total of six assessments from first to sixth grade).
- The baseline assessment took place during the 2023-2024 school year.