Publications by authors named "Gerritsen S"

Article Synopsis
  • - The National Healthy Food and Drink Policy, introduced in New Zealand's public hospitals in 2016, aimed to provide healthier food options for staff and visitors, with a study assessing its implementation from 1 to 5 years after its initiation.
  • - Audits conducted in 2017 and 2021 showed significant changes in the classification of food items, with an increase in green (healthy) options and a decrease in red (unhealthy) items across serviced outlets and vending machines.
  • - By 2021, green items represented 20.7% of available choices, a notable increase from 14.0% in 2017, though none of the health boards fully met the policy's ideal standards for healthy
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Sodium intake attributed to fast food is increasing globally. This research aims to develop maximum sodium reduction targets for New Zealand (NZ) fast foods and compare them with the current sodium content of products. Sodium content and serving size data were sourced from an existing database of major NZ fast-food chains.

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Background: In 2016, a voluntary National Healthy Food and Drink Policy (hereafter, "the Policy") was released to encourage public hospitals in New Zealand to provide food and drink options in line with national dietary guidelines. Five years later, eight (of 20) organisations had adopted it, with several preferring to retain or update their own institutional-level version. This study assessed staff and visitors' awareness and support for and against the Policy, and collected feedback on perceived food environment changes since implementation of the Policy.

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Background And Hypothesis: Young people (YP) with psychotic experiences (PE) have an increased risk of developing a psychiatric disorder. Therefore, knowledge on continuity of care from child and adolescent (CAMHS) to adult mental health services (AMHS) in relation to PE is important. Here, we investigated whether the self-reported trajectories of persistent PE were associated with likelihood of transition to AMHS and mental health outcomes.

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Food neophobia (FN) reduces nutritional adequacy and variety which poses a significant concern for children's health and well-being We described the FN scores among 8-year-olds and examined its associations with nutrition-related behaviors at 45 months within the Growing Up in New Zealand cohort (n = 4621). FN was estimated using the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS). Mean FNS scores between variable categories were compared using t-tests for independent samples and ANOVA.

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Purpose: Experiences of young people transitioning from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) have mostly been investigated qualitatively. This study adapts and validates the On Your Own Feet - Transition Experiences Scale (OYOF-TES) in a sample of CAMHS users in Europe and describes young people's and parents' experiences with transition and end of care at CAMHS.

Methods: The OYOF-TES was adapted to a mental health setting and translated.

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Background: Young people are at risk of falling through the care gap after leaving child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) despite an ongoing need for mental health support. Currently, little is known about the predictors of transitioning to adult mental health services (AMHS), and associated healthcare and societal costs as young people cross the transition boundary.

Objective: To conduct a secondary data analysis exploring predictors of transitioning or falling through the gap and associated costs.

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Article Synopsis
  • There are significant challenges at the boundary between child/adolescent mental health services and adult services for young people, leading to issues in continuity of care.
  • A study involving 772 young people across seven European countries found that engagement with healthcare services dropped significantly after the transition to adult services, with healthcare costs also decreasing from €7761 to €3376.
  • Factors such as service capacity issues and young people's disengagement from healthcare post-transition contribute to the observed cost reductions, highlighting the need for long-term research on the impacts of this transition on health outcomes and costs.
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In 2020, a government-funded healthy school lunch program was introduced in a quarter of New Zealand schools, selected due to high levels of socio-economic barriers. This study assesses the impact of the introduction of the school lunch program from family (whānau), student and school principal perspectives. Across four schools, we conducted five focus groups (two with secondary students and three with family members) and four school principal interviews.

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Context: Many countries and institutions have adopted policies to promote healthier food and drink availability in various settings, including public sector workplaces.

Objective: The objective of this review was to systematically synthesize evidence on barriers and facilitators to implementation of and compliance with healthy food and drink policies aimed at the general adult population in public sector workplaces.

Data Sources: Nine scientific databases, 9 grey literature sources, and government websites in key English-speaking countries along with reference lists.

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In many nano(opto)electronic devices, the roughness at surfaces and interfaces is of increasing importance, with roughness often contributing toward losses and defects, which can lead to device failure. Consequently, approaches that either limit roughness or smoothen surfaces are required to minimize surface roughness during fabrication. The atomic-scale processing techniques atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) have experimentally been shown to smoothen surfaces, with the added benefit of offering uniform and conformal processing and precise thickness control.

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Introduction: Rectoperineal congenital anorectal malformations (CARMs) are diagnosed by examining the perineum, combined with electric stimulation (ES) of the anal sphincter performed under anesthesia. This procedure may be troublesome because it is based on the observed contractibility of the sphincter. We aimed to add 3-dimensional high-resolution anorectal manometry (3D-HRAM) to the procedure and to assess its value for diagnosing rectoperineal forms of CARM.

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Background: Children's exposure to unhealthy food and beverage marketing has a direct impact on their dietary preference for, and consumption of, unhealthy food and drinks. Most children spend time online, yet marketing restrictions for this medium have had slow uptake globally. A voluntary Children's and Young People's Advertising (CYPA) Code was implemented in Aotearoa, New Zealand (NZ) in 2017.

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Background: The configuration of having separate mental health services by age, namely child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and adult mental health services (AMHS), might be a barrier to continuity of care that adversely affects young people's mental health. However, no studies have investigated whether discontinuity of care in the transition period affects mental health. We aimed to discern the type of care young people receive after reaching the upper age limit of their CAMHS and examine differences in outcomes at 24-month follow-up between young people receiving different types of care.

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Aim: To assess adoption of the voluntary National Healthy Food and Drink Policy (NHFDP) and the alignment of individual institutional healthy food and drink policies with the NHFDP.

Method: All 20 district health boards (DHBs) and two national government agencies participated. Policies of those organisations that had not fully adopted the NHFDP were assessed across three domains: nutrition standards; promotion of a healthy food and beverages environment; and policy communication, implementation and evaluation.

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Objectives: How do providers of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions propose and legitimize the values of their solutions for supporting diagnostic radiology workflow?

Methods: We systematically analyze 393 AI applications developed for supporting diagnostic radiology workflow. We collected qualitative and quantitative data by analyzing around 1250 pages of documents retrieved from companies' websites and legal documents. Five investigators read and interpreted collected data, extracted the features and functionalities of the AI applications, and finally entered them into an excel file for identifying the patterns.

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New Zealand (NZ) lacks nationally representative or generalisable information on the dietary intakes of pre-schoolers. We used Growing Up in New Zealand cohort data to i) develop child feeding indexes (CFIs) based on National Food and Nutrition Guidelines for 2- and 4.5-year-olds; ii) describe the cohort adherence to the guidelines at 2 (n = 6046) and 4.

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COVID-19 lockdown meant disruptions to daily routines for households in Aotearoa New Zealand. The research presented here investigates how mealtimes changed for people living in New Zealand during the first COVID-19 lockdown in mid-2020 and sought to determine if household composition type and psychological distress impacted the frequency of engaging in several mealtime behaviors. The COVID Kai Survey collected data using an anonymous, online survey and asked questions on sociodemographic characteristics including household composition, frequency of engaging in different mealtime behaviors before and during lockdown, and psychological distress, which was measured using the Kessler 6 screening tool.

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Article Synopsis
  • Children's nutrition is impacted by community deprivation and socioeconomic inequalities, leading to issues like childhood obesity, which are increasing over time.
  • A community-based system dynamics approach was used in New Zealand, incorporating Indigenous perspectives, where workshops facilitated community members, including both youth and adults, to collaboratively create systems maps that illustrate the drivers of poor nutrition in their area.
  • The study identified ten prioritized community interventions, emphasizing the importance of cultural connections and addressing societal and individual-environmental factors, while also recognizing the historical context of colonization affecting these communities.
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Article Synopsis
  • The food system in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, is struggling with issues of equity, health outcomes, and food security, particularly among children, as evidenced by high rates of childhood obesity.
  • A study of 2087 students revealed significant challenges: 16.8% faced food insufficiency, many didn't eat breakfast, and only a small percentage met national fruit and vegetable intake guidelines.
  • There is a stark disparity between rich and poor schools, with students in higher decile schools being more likely to meet the recommended vegetable intake; overall, 44.5% of students are overweight or obese, highlighting the need for public health initiatives to address these issues.
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Healthy food environments in early childhood play an important role in establishing health-promoting nutritional behaviours for later life. We surveyed Early Learning Services (ELS) in the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand and describe common barriers and facilitators to providing a healthy food environment, through descriptive survey analysis and thematic analysis of open-ended questions. We used a policy analysis tool to assess the strength and comprehensiveness of the individual centre’s nutrition policies and we report on the healthiness of menus provided daily in the centres.

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