Report from the 4th Calisia Conference on Family Health, Kalisz, Poland, 7-9 October 2024

INTRODUCTION

The 4^th Calisia World Conference on Family Health was organized by the Institute – European Observatory of Health Inequalities at the University of Kalisz, and by the Health Promotion Foundation (Fundacja “Promo­cja Zdrowia”). The conference took place in Kalisz, Poland, on 7-9 October 2024. It was co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the programme “Excellent Science”. Kalisz is the oldest city in Poland and provides a venerable context for an international public health conference.

PREVIOUS WORLD CONFERENCES ON FAMILY HEALTH

Three previous world conferences on family health were held in Kalisz in 2019, 2021, and 2023.
During the 2019 conference, the focus was on the state of health in Poland and serious health challenges for Poland as well as for Europe more broadly [1]. At this conference, more than 100 participants agreed upon a declaration which summarized such challenges that particularly confronted the countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the high levels of socioeconomic inequalities in Europe. Furthermore, the declaration emphasized the need for strong governance and comprehensive action for public health in all countries in order to prevent disease, promote health, and reduce health inequalities [2].
At the 2021 conference, the main theme was “Health at the time of crises and wars”, a topic of high relevance across Europe and beyond [3]. During the first day of this conference, Professor Theodor Meron, specialist in international criminal law and human rights, born in Kalisz in 1930, was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Kalisz. Theodor Meron was a victim of Nazi crimes when he was a child and a refugee in Poland in his adolescent years. Among the topics covered during this conference were family health care, the health situation in Central European countries, the COVID-19 pandemic, and human rights in the time of armed conflict [4].
In a separate paper from this conference, Aarø and associates summarized presentations on tobacco and alcohol policies and measures [5]. In addition to documenting inequalities in mortality across countries as well as inequalities in mortality related to alcohol and tobacco use within countries, the role of restrictive measures was addressed. It was concluded that comprehensive alcohol control policies contribute to reducing alcohol consumption and reduce the associated burden of...


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