Publications by authors named "Kleef E"

Article Synopsis
  • The study assesses 24 patients with Nemaline myopathy type 6 (NEM6) in the Netherlands, focusing on detailed clinical characteristics and symptom reporting.
  • Key findings include reported symptoms of muscle weakness, slow movements, and difficulties with running, along with significantly reduced health-related quality of life and increased fatigue.
  • The research also highlights issues with balance and falls, as well as a slower muscle relaxation rate compared to normal standards.
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This field experimental study examined how increased availability and economic incentives for healthier beverages affect preadolescents' actual healthier beverage choices in a real-world setting. In addition, the impact of preadolescents' descriptive norm towards healthier beverages, price awareness and parental restrictive rules regarding beverage consumption were explored. During the experiment, preadolescents could independently buy two beverages from an assortment with a total of eight beverages.

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Background: Nemaline myopathy type 6 (NEM6) or KBTBD13-related congenital myopathy is the most prevalent type of nemaline myopathy in the Netherlands and is characterised by mild childhood-onset axial, proximal and distal muscle weakness with prominent neck flexor weakness combined with slowness of movements. The most prevalent variant in the Netherlands is the c.1222C > T p.

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Nemaline myopathy (NM) is a congenital myopathy with generalised muscle weakness, most pronounced in neck flexor, bulbar and respiratory muscles. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess the Dutch NM patient cohort. We assessed medical history, physical examination, quality of life (QoL), fatigue severity, motor function (MFM), and respiratory muscle function.

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In sub-Saharan Africa, reported COVID-19 numbers have been lower than anticipated, even when considering populations' younger age. The extent to which risk factors, established in industrialised countries, impact the risk of infection and of disease in populations in sub-Saharan Africa, remains unclear. We estimated the incidence of mild and moderate COVID-19 in urban Mozambique and analysed factors associated with infection and disease in a population-based surveillance study.

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This study aimed to investigate the responses in desire and salivation during repeated chocolate consumption, and examining how these responses are influenced by a relaxed relationship with food, or 'food legalizing'. Salivation is often used as a proxy for desire, though evidence for this correlation is mixed. We hypothesized that both desire and salivation would decrease with repeated chocolate intake.

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Background: Respiratory muscle training (RMT) aims to improve inspiratory and/or expiratory muscle function in neuromuscular disorders (NMDs). A comprehensive overview of the available literature is lacking. This scoping review explores methodological characteristics, (adverse) effects, and adherence of RMT studies in NMDs.

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Background: Adolescents spend much of their time online and hence are exposed to a lot of non-core (energy-dense, nutrient-poor) social media food marketing (SMFM). This may influence their dietary choices and health. This present study aimed to investigate adolescents' perceptions towards SMFM; that is, their recognition and appreciation of SMFM.

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Background: European epidemic intelligence (EI) systems receive vast amounts of information and data on disease outbreaks and potential health threats. The quantity and variety of available data sources for EI, as well as the available methods to manage and analyse these data sources, are constantly increasing. Our aim was to identify the difficulties encountered in this context and which innovations, according to EI practitioners, could improve the detection, monitoring and analysis of disease outbreaks and the emergence of new pathogens.

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Background: There is no tradition of serving school lunches in primary schools in the Netherlands. Most children tend to bring their own packed lunch, however these are often nutritionally suboptimal. While school lunch provision can aid healthy eating behavior amongst children, its introduction would constitute a profound change for children, parents and school staff.

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This narrative review revises the scientific evidence of recent years on healthy eating in children and adolescents, making sense of promising avenues of action, from a food system perspective. A conceptual framework is provided to better understand how eating habits of children and adolescents are shaped to identify key multisectoral approaches that should be implemented to promote healthier diets. The following influencing factors are discussed: individual factors (physiological and psychological factors, food preferences and food literacy competencies), factors within the personal and socio-cultural food environments, external food environments, and the supply chain.

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Epidemic Intelligence (EI) encompasses all activities related to early identification, verification, analysis, assessment, and investigation of health threats. It integrates an indicator-based (IBS) component using systematically collected surveillance data, and an event-based component (EBS), using non-official, non-verified, non-structured data from multiple sources. We described current EI practices in Europe by conducting a survey of national Public Health (PH) and Animal Health (AH) agencies.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the need for better global governance of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) and has emphasised the importance of organised knowledge production and uptake. In this Health Policy, we assess the potential values and risks of establishing an Intergovernmental Panel for One Health (IPOH). Similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an IPOH would facilitate knowledge uptake in policy making via a multisectoral approach, and hence support the addressing of infectious disease emergence and re-emergence at the human-animal-environment interface.

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Background: Respiratory muscle weakness is a common feature in nemaline myopathy. Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) is an intervention that aims to improve inspiratory muscle strength.

Objective: The aim of this controlled before-and-after pilot study was to investigate if IMT improves respiratory muscle strength in patients with nemaline myopathy.

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Food literacy has emerged as a key individual trait to promote the transformation of food systems toward healthy and sustainable diets. Childhood and adolescence are key periods for establishing the foundations of eating habits. Different food literacy competencies are acquired as children develop different cognitive abilities, skills, and experiences, contributing to the development of critical tools that allow them to navigate a complex food system.

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This study aims to identify opportunities and barriers in developing and implementing Food Shopping Support Systems (FSSS) for healthier and more sustainable choices, given the growing consumer demand and persistent societal problems related to food. The study examined the social and technical value of FSSS in an early development stage through one-on-one expert interviews (n = 20) and consumer focus groups (4 groups, n = 19). Experts were employed in the fields of behavioral sciences, digital marketing, decision aids, software development, persuasive technologies, and public health and sustainability.

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Article Synopsis
  • Impaired muscle relaxation is a significant characteristic of certain myopathies, with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) effectively measuring this relaxation through its impact on corticospinal drive.
  • Men with Brody disease, nemaline myopathy type 6, and myotonic dystrophy type 2 showed significantly lower peak relaxation rates compared to healthy individuals and symptomatic controls.
  • TMS demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy in differentiating myopathy patients from controls, suggesting its potential utility in clinical settings for confirming diagnoses and monitoring disease progression.
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This paper presents an annotated dataset used in the MOOD Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) hackathon, hosted in Montpellier, June 2022. The collected data concerns unstructured data from news items, scientific publications and national or international reports, collected from four event-based surveillance (EBS) Systems, i.e.

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Objective: To investigate the content of lunchboxes of primary school children and to examine children's support and preferences for alternative healthy school lunch concepts.

Design: A cross-sectional study among Dutch children from seven primary schools. The content of the lunchboxes was assessed by photographs.

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Background: A school provided healthy lunch might help to improve the nutritional quality of children's lunches. However, in the Netherlands, school lunch programs are not common. The aim of this study was to identify factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of a school lunch program at primary schools, from the viewpoint of school professionals.

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In this cross-sectional study, we comprehensively assessed respiratory muscle function in various clinical forms of nemaline myopathy (NM) including non-volitional tests for diaphragm function. Forty-two patients with NM were included (10 males (25-74 y/o); 32 females (11-76 y/o)). The NM forms were typical (n=11), mild (n=7), or childhood-onset with slowness of movements (n=24).

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Background: Traditional food marketing, mostly involving advertisement of nutrient poor and energy dense foods, has the effect of enhancing attitudes, preferences, and increasing intake of marketed foods in adolescents, with detrimental consequences for health. While the use of social media applications in adolescents has proliferated, little is known about the content of food promotions within these applications. The aim of this study was to investigate adolescents' exposure to and evaluation of social media food promotions (SMFPs).

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