MooDFOOD

Impact of food and nutritional behaviour, lifestyle and the socio-economic environment on depression
Proposed remedial actions

MooDFOOD is a Multi-country Collaborative project on the Role of Diet, Food-related behaviour, and Obesity in the prevention of Depression.
Depression is one of the most prevalent, severe and disabling disorders in the EU and places a heavy burden on individuals and families. A large proportion of the EU population is overweight which increases depression risk. Improving food-related behaviour and nutrient status offer opportunities to prevent depression, specifically for people prone to being overweight.

The MooDFOOD consortium combinesexpertise in nutrition, consumer behaviour, psychiatry and preventive psychology and uses a unique integrative approach. Existing high quality data of longitudinal prospective European cohort studies will be combined with new data from surveys, short-term experiments and a long-term preventive intervention study.
This approach will provide insight in the causality of the link between diet and depression and underlying pathways, and will identify which modifications related to depression lead to beneficial dietary changes and lower the environmental burden of the diet.

Knowledge on all these aspects will be integrated and used
to develop novel nutritional strategies to prevent depression. The MooDFOOD consortium aims 1) to gain a better understanding of the psychological, lifestyle and environmental pathways underlying the multi-faceted, bidirectional links of food intake, nutrient status, food-related behaviour and obesity with depression and 2) to develop and disseminate
innovative evidence-based, feasible, effective and sustainable nutritional strategies for the prevention of clinical depression. In close collaboration with stakeholders and experts MooDFOOD will transform these nutritional strategies into guidelines and practical tools to guide policy at EU- and Member State levels. Promotion through extensive European networks will lower the risk of depression and contribute to overall health of all EU citizens.

The aim of WP6 is to create a collaborative working platform for use in all work packages and produce and disseminate information on MooDFOOD, its objectives, research approaches and results to the project’s target audiences: the scientific community, media, general public, policy makers, health professionals and relevant scientific societies, relevant industries (including SMEs), consumer organizations. Focus will be on both European and International dissemination.

The project will develop a strategy for the translation of the scientific outputs and results into practical tools
(guidelines, policy documents, research methods etc.) to prevent depression through nutritional strategies.

Gamian will assist in the promotion and the use of project results and implementation tools by European and International stakeholders and target groups. Facilitate optimal communication within and outside the consortium and build a road map for dissemination of the developed nutritional strategies including a strong communication and marketing strategy. Translate scientific results and data into dissemination materials, with actions being coordinated by a communication/dissemination plan. Dissemination materials (online and print) will be translated where possible via EASO’s network in 30 European countries and partner networks.
The aim of WP7 is to ensure timely implementation of the consortium in conformity with the EC contract and the consortium agreement and a successful meeting of all aims. Internal and external project management: coordination of all WPs and the contributions of the partners, steering, control of the progress, administration of the entire project, public relations, regular communication with partners and responsible EC authority. Additionally, this includes ensuring that the project’s main objectives are realized on schedule, according to budget, and that the activities of all partners are compliant with the EC contract, the consortium agreement and the relevant legal issues regarding collaboration.
The results of this work package will be amongst others, the periodic reports and final report. The other results are, with the exception of the reports, not listed as deliverables, as appropriate project management can be expected to deliver these ‘standard’ results.

A scientific summary paper will be published at the end of the project for which open access will be purchased.

Relevant outcomes, findings, key recommendations, implementation tools and the final report will be disseminated to the scientific community in a series of society e-newsletters (EASO, EAAD and GAMIAN plus relevant project partners) and e-newsletters on the project website and partner networks.

The project will connect with relevant European and International networks via project workshops. Two interim workshops will take place as satellite symposia at relevant congresses. present final results to key target audiences) will be organised as a stand-alone meeting in Brussels.

All project partners will develop and expand existing networks to allow wide scientific dissemination. A database of interested parties will be created as a dissemination channel. The links that EASO (and project partners) have with the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health will be built on to disseminate results.

Classical Dissemination of remedial actions
Two Project leaflets (in English) will be produced, one presenting the main elements of the project (at the beginning) and the other summarising project achievements (at the end), to be distributed through partners networks and at relevant conferences/events. b) Press releases on the project and its results will be written in English and translated into relevant languages, and sent to European and international press outlets and to national journalists.

Print and online dissemination of the translated nutritional strategies.

A final conference at the end of the project will be organised for key target audiences. A summary of the project results will be made available for stakeholders before the end of the project.

Non-classical dissemination (social media) of remedial actions
To increase outreach and types of audience, various online tools will be used to promote further the project results in an accessible, direct and understandable, yet scientifically sound fashion.

Two podcast series based on interviews/presentations with key partners during project workshops and one webinar of the final conference. These will be disseminated via the project website and at relevant scientific meetings (for example EASO’s ECO, IUNS and EPA and mainstream internet outlets such as YouTube).

A MooDFOOD Twitter account and/or Facebook page to ensure social media presence, reach of different target audiences and wider dissemination. d) Mutual links will be established with project partners’ websites and organisations working or with interest in this area.

A MooDFOOD section will be created on www.easo.org and the websites of the dissemination partners to drive traffic to the project website.

STICHTING VU-VUMC VUA Netherlands
Ingeborg Brouwer form the VU: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University) is the project manager and the secretariat to coordinate this multi country research project is located at the VU in Amsterdam. She is a professor in Health Sciences. So this project is a very interesting collaboration between nutrionists and psychiatrists/psychologists.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON UCL United Kingdom
AZIENDA SANITARIA DI FIRENZE ASF Italy
HASKOLI ISLANDS UI Iceland
ACADEMISCH MEDISCH CENTRUM BIJ DE UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM AMC Netherlands
AARHUS UNIVERSITET AU Denmark
STICHTING GGZ INGEEST GGZ Netherlands
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER UNEXE United Kingdom
UNIVERSITAT DE LES ILLES BALEARS UIB Spain
UNIVERSITAET LEIPZIG ULEI Germany
EFICOM MARKETUDES SARL EFICOM France
EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF OBESITY EASO United Kingdom
EUROPEAN ALLIANCE AGAINST DEPRESSION EV
EAAD Germany
GLOBAL ALLIANCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS ADVOCACY NETWORKS EUROPE AISBL, GAMIAN-Europe, Belgium