Culcasi (Gis Faia): “Physiotherapy is a fundamental contribution to the prevention and promotion of health”

A very important conference at the Sapienza in Rome

ROME – Disseminate scientific knowledge, professional skills and evidence-based good practices relating to the promotion of health in older people.

It was the objective of the 2024 National Congress of the GIS Group Physiotherapy in the elderly and active aging (FAIA) of the Italian Association of Physiotherapy (AIFI), entitled ‘Health Promotion in Physiotherapy’, which took place at the Sapienza University of Rome.

“The physiotherapist can play a very important role in promoting health – Dr. Antonio Culcasi, president of the GIS FAIA, explained to Dire – by facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills that will allow people and those who are at their side to become active protagonists of their own health choices”.

At what age group should we start spreading the culture of prevention?

“It’s an interesting question, which we also asked ourselves during the Congress – Culcasi replied – When does aging begin? From birth? After the age of 30? A survey conducted in 2020 among the participants in a symposium on the biology of aging he would have identified this threshold at reaching sexual maturity, therefore around the age of 20. We understand well, then, how dealing with health promotion represents a very important investment, since it concerns a large part of our life”.

“During the Congress we based ourselves on two very important foundations: the first, that of active ageing, understood as a process of optimizing health, participation and safety opportunities aimed at improving the quality of life; the second , that of healthy aging, understood as the development and maintenance of functional abilities that allow well-being in old age”.

“There is a need for a change of perspective since in the last sixty years life expectancy has increased by 20 years, but only 50% of people experience a healthy aging process. This then is an assumption of responsibility – Culcasi underlined – in which the physiotherapist can also have an important role through health promotion activities.

The scientific literature also suggests it, for example, that correct lifestyles represent a very important factor in the prevention of diseases considered ‘big killers'”.

But where should the health promotion process start from?

“It is a social, political process and concerns many aspects – replied the president of GIS FAIA – and it is clear that everyone is called to provide their own contribution. This is stated in the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030 of WHO, as well as the National Prevention Plan 2020-2025 and the Chronicity Plan of 2016, which recommend that all health workers be, at all times, promoters of health, especially with regard to physical activity”.

For the professionals of the GIS FAIA, therefore, “physiotherapists can make a great contribution to achieving these objectives, because they have great opportunities: first of all because they work in all life settings and in all phases of life of an individual; secondly, because they have a very precious element, the time spent with patients.

And time is an essential ingredient for all health promotion interventions, both for the identification of risk factors and then for the planning, implementation and also the correct implementation by the person of what has been set” .

Transversality also highlighted in the topics covered during the congress, which saw different specialist areas, different professionalisms interacting on the topic and which also addressed topics such as the importance of contextual factors and environmental accessibility within the promotion of health.

“In the congress we saw in several reports how important the contribution of physiotherapists can be to the planning and implementation of primary prevention programs (to reduce the development of pathologies), secondary prevention (for the early interception of pathologies) and of promoting health and healthy lifestyles, both in the absence and presence of pathologies, which concern in particular the improvement and maintenance of physical activity, Physiotherapy being the science of movement dysfunctions and the treatment of other dysfunctions through movement “.

How much can stress affect the quality of life and the development of pathologies?

“Stress factors have a huge impact on the quality of life – said Culcasi – if we talk about distress it is one of the factors on which health promotion must work, but it is clear that for To do this as well as deal with all the other elements relating to health promotion, physiotherapists cannot avoid having specific skills, with strong communication and educational elements. This is why we absolutely need to invest in the training of professionals to ensure that they acquire ever greater skills in health promotion. It is no coincidence that we chose Sapienza as the venue for our Congress – concluded the president of GIS FAIA – precisely because it is in the Universities that the present and future of the profession is outlined”.

During the conference, the elective assembly of the new National Executive Committee of the GIS FAIA was held which saw the election of Giovanni De Bellis (President) and the councilors Antonio Culcasi, Anna Maria Foggetto, Leticia Maria De Miranda Rescigno, Francesco Bucchi, Francesca Tusoni, Sonia Martinotta, Mattia Prandini and Stefano Primavera.