Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
The idea of publishing a regular issue dedicated to the Role of the National Health Service (NHS) in doping prevention was born immediately, when we unanimously approved the Erice 2018 statement. After days of discussion, those ten statements appeared too narrow for all that was meant through the final consensus document. That was very clear among the over 130 attendees at the 53rd Residential Course on “Adapted Physical Activity in Sport, Wellness and Fitness". The role of the Departments of Prevention (DPs) and of the NHS in doping prevention and health promotion”, held on 15-19 May 2018 in Erice, Italy, at the “Ettore Majorana” Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, and promoted by the International School of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine “G. D’Alessandro” and by the Study Group on Movement Sciences for Health of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health. The event brought together colleagues from all Italian regions, with different backgrounds, different and valuable expertise, but all with a common passion and commitment for public health. The Course was the core event of a national project that the Ministry of Health to prevent doping by developing a permanent toolbox based on the DPs network and on the local structures of the Italian NHS (www. progettodoping. it). In order to approach the problem and assess appropriate strategies, the project involved local health facilities and operators in facing doping habits, including the misuse of drugs or the abuse of food supplements in the general population approaching sport at amateur level or accessing gyms for performing adapted physical activity. The final aim was to survey and recruit expertise in the field, train public health operators and support at local level a cascade of health education campaigns. Since the beginning, this strategy had a nationwide dimension, also considering that physical activity is included in the Prevention Plan 2014-2018 of the NHS.
Spica et al. (Thu,) studied this question.