ENACT

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for 80% of the disease burden and the majority of premature deaths in the EU, significantly diminishing citizens’ quality of life, reducing life expectancy, and increasing the financial strain on both individuals and healthcare systems. Over the past three decades, environmental stressors have been extensively studied, revealing their detrimental effects on human health. The most commonly evaluated environmental stressors include air temperature, particulate and gaseous air pollutants, urban noise, food pollutants, and radiation.

By the end of 2022, air pollution was reported to contribute to an excess mortality of 311,000 people per year in the EU-27. This environmental factor not only drives premature deaths but also increases the risk of vascular diseases such as ischemic heart disease and stroke, as well as non-vascular NCDs like chronic respiratory diseases and depression. Emerging stressors, including electromagnetic fields and light exposure, are also being recognized for their potential impact on human health, particularly in the development of ocular and dermatological NCDs.

ENACT aims to establish a pathway for generating clinical, technological, and economic impacts in both the short and long term. By targeting local and regional stakeholders, ENACT seeks to create a meaningful impact through the following objectives:

• Developing a state-of-the-art environmental risk score and analyser-driven framework and platform to predict, monitor, and prevent the exposomic risk of acute and chronic health conditions associated with vascular and non-vascular NCDs.
• Implementing this new exposomic risk score and analyser to support three key groups:
  1. Patients – Empowering individuals with personalized risk assessment and prevention strategies.
  2. Healthcare professionals and hospitals – Enhancing clinical decision-making and improving patient management.
  3. Policy makers – Informing and reinforcing policies that enable effective prevention and disease management.

By integrating individual vulnerability factors into its framework, ENACT aims to reduce the human and financial burden of NCDs while reinforcing both clinical and policy-based approaches. The ultimate goal is to improve prevention, disease management, and overall quality of life for EU citizens.