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MonAM knows the answer

Edition No. 129
Dec. 2020
National prevention strategies: review and outlook

The MonAM monitoring system contains reliable data on many aspects of addiction and noncommunicable diseases (NCD). It presents information in interactive graphics that also identify trends. In this way MonAM provides guidance for anyone wishing to find out about the health of the Swiss population.

How many people die in road traffic accidents in which the driver is under the influence of alcohol, drugs or medication? Which canton has the highest proportion of people who get enough physical activity? Anyone looking for answers to these (and many other) questions can find them on the web portal of the Swiss monitoring system MonAM.

​Education matters

The name comes from the French title of the system: “Système de Moni­torage suisse des Addictions et des Maladies non transmissibles” [Swiss monitoring system for addictions and noncommunicable diseases]. MonAM is an important component of the national strategies NCD and Addiction. Its numerous indicators and measured data draw a fact-based picture of the health of the Swiss population. Whenever possible, MonAM places these data in the wider societal context. The figures show, for example, that health equity in terms of equality of opportunities may not be guaranteed for all in Switzerland. Thus, people with a tertiary qualification smoke less and are more likely to achieve recommended levels of physical activity than those having completed compulsory schooling at most.
“It’s worth visiting the website because MonAM is a great place to quickly find reliable and scientifically robust information about numerous aspects of addiction and NCDs,” says Wally Achtermann, who is co-responsible for MonAM at the FOPH. MonAM is freely available to public health experts, the media, politicians, and all other interested individuals. Besides monitoring the health of the population, MonAM allows the efficacy of the two national strategies Addiction and NCD to be evaluated.

A joint effort

Achtermann emphasises that the monitoring system is a joint effort by a large number of partners. “This partnership is what enables MonAM to provide such comprehensive and high-quality data,” Achtermann says. The FOPH works with 30 or so organisations in the fields of health, environment, social affairs and business to develop and maintain MonAM. The Swiss Health Observatory (Obsan) is responsible for preparing the data and for managing the website.

MonAM does not record data itself. Instead, the monitoring system is based on different forms of existing information and measured data, such as the results of the Swiss Health Survey. The various partners working with the FOPH supply, update, calculate or check the data.

MonAM was launched in October 2018 with data on 27 different indicators. Currently about 100 indicators are available online, with more to follow. The new indicators include, for example, figures on behavioural addictions. MonAM informs users that an estimated 178,000 people in Switzerland have high-risk gambling behaviour and around 15,000 have pathological gambling behaviour. And MonAM shows that the number of gaming bans (difference between new bans and lifted bans) increases by more than 3,000 each year since 2005.

Problematic Internet use

Problematic use of the Internet is another form of addictive behaviour. One of the features that defines this addiction is that other activities (and sometimes even sleep) are neglected because of Internet use. In 2017, 3 % of the population aged 15 and over showed this kind of behaviour. Men (3.5 %) are affected more heavily than women (2.5 %). Surprisingly, there are almost twice as many individuals with this behaviour in the French-speaking part of Switzerland (4.7 %) as in the German-speaking part (2.4 %).

Of course, MonAM knows the answers to the questions at the start of this article, too. With 82.9 %, Graubünden ranks first among the cantons in which the population gets enough physical activity. Yet even in the lowest-ranking cantons – Vaud, Neuchâtel, Ticino and Jura – two-thirds of the population take exercise for at least two-and-a-half hours per week. Across Switzerland as a whole, the share of the population that is active increased from 62.2 % to 75.7 % between 2002 and 2017.

And what about those road traffic accidents? Another piece of good news: compared with 1992, when 198 people died, road traffic accidents caused by driving under the influence led to just 28 deaths in 2019.

Links

Contact

Wally Achtermann and Laure Curt
Scientific Foundations Section


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