Publications by authors named "Leurs M"

Background: Enabling, supporting and promoting positive health-related behaviours is critical in addressing the major public health challenges of our time, and the multifaceted nature of behaviours requires an evidence-based approach. This statement seeks to suggest how a much-needed enhanced use of behavioural and cultural science and insights for health could be advanced.

Study Design And Methods: and methods: Public health authorities of Europe and Central Asia and international partner organizations in September 2023 met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss the way forward.

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This 'cohort profile' aims to provide a description of the study design, methodology, and baseline characteristics of the participants in the Corona Behavioral Unit cohort. This cohort was established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the regional public health services. The aim was to investigate adherence of and support for COVID-19 prevention measures, psychosocial determinants of COVID-19 behaviors, well-being, COVID-19 vaccination, and media use.

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Objective: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has affected mental health, understanding who has been affected most and why is incomplete. We sought to understand changes in mental health in the context of transmission numbers and pandemic (social) restrictions and whether changes in mental health varied among population groups.

Methods: We analyzed data from 92 062 people (aged ≥16 years and able to read Dutch) who participated in the Corona Behavioral Unit cohort study at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands, from April 17, 2020, through January 25, 2022.

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Background: COVID-19 mitigation measures intend to protect public health, but their adverse psychological, social, and economic effects weaken public support. Less favorable trade-offs may especially weaken support for more restrictive measures. Support for mitigation measures may also differ between population subgroups who experience different benefits and costs, and decrease over time, a phenomenon termed "pandemic fatigue.

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Behavioural sciences have complemented medical and epidemiological sciences in the response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. As vaccination uptake continues to increase across the EU/EEA - including booster vaccinations - behavioural science research remains important for both pandemic policy, planning of services and communication. From a behavioural perspective, the following three areas are key as the pandemic progresses: (i) attaining and maintaining high levels of vaccination including booster doses across all groups in society, including socially vulnerable populations, (ii) informing sustainable pandemic policies and ensuring adherence to basic prevention measures to protect the most vulnerable population, and (iii) facilitating population preparedness and willingness to support and adhere to the reimposition of restrictions locally or regionally whenever outbreaks may occur.

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Artificial metalloenzymes (AME's) are an interesting class of selective catalysts, where the chiral environment of proteins is used as chiral ligand for a catalytic metal. Commonly, the active site of an enzyme is modified with a catalytically active metal. Here we present an approach, where the commercial proteins lysozyme (LYS) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) can be converted into highly active and enantioselective AME's.

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The properties of enzymes can be altered significantly by modification with polymers. Numerous different methods are known to obtain such polymer-enzyme conjugates (PECs). However, there is no universal method to render enzymes into PECs that are fully soluble in organic solvents.

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Conjugates of enzymes and poly(2-methyloxazoline) were used as organosoluble amphiphilic polymer nanocontainers for dissolving osmate, thereby converting the enzymes into organosoluble artificial metalloenzymes. These were shown to catalyze the dihydroxylation of different alkenes with high enantioselectivity. The highest selectivities, found for osmate complexed with laccase polymer-enzyme conjugates (PECs), even exceed those of classical Sharpless catalysts.

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Registration or recognition systems for best-practice health promotion interventions may contribute to better quality assurance and control in health promotion practice. In the Netherlands, such a system has been developed and is being implemented aiming to provide policy makers and professionals with more information on the quality and effectiveness of available health promotion interventions and to promote use of good-practice and evidence-based interventions by health promotion organizations. The quality assessments are supervised by the Netherlands Organization for Public Health and the Environment and the Netherlands Youth Institute and conducted by two committees, one for interventions aimed at youth and one for adults.

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Background: Collaborations are important to health promotion in addressing multi-party problems. Interest in collaborative processes in health promotion is rising, but still lacks monitoring instruments. The authors developed the DIagnosis of Sustainable Collaboration (DISC) model to enable comprehensive monitoring of public health collaboratives.

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Objectives: The number of healthy school interventions of unknown quality overwhelms schools. Quality is a construct that is differently interpreted by teachers and health promoters. The schoolBeat checklist for quality assessment of healthy school interventions incorporates the quality perceptions of both professional groups.

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We examined age-related changes in endurance performance of marathon and half-marathon finishers. A total of 405 515 running times were separated into groups based on age, sex, and distance. After exclusion of repetitive running times, 300 757 runners were analyzed by ANOVA (factors: age, sex).

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To enable improvements in school health promotion, this paper examines associations between the number of health-promotion issues addressed by primary school teachers in the Netherlands and factors thought to influence this behavior. The main factors studied are context characteristics and constructs of attitude, social influence, self-efficacy (SE) and perceived barriers. A total of 180 primary school teachers teaching 9- to 12-year olds (Grades 6, 7 and 8) participated in a cross-sectional survey.

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Background: The daily television program 'the Netherlands on the Move' (NOM-tv), which primarily targets people aged over 55 (estimated Dutch 55+ population: 4 million), was designed as part of a national campaign for promoting physical activity. The aim of the study was to identify the determinants of exercise participation and viewing NOM-tv.

Methods: The method used was baseline test by quota digit dialing in the country (n = 988, stratified age 35+ and 55+), and follow-up after 7 months (n = 362).

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In recent decades, school health promotion programs have been developing into whole-school health approaches. This has been accompanied by a greater understanding among health promoters of the core-business of schools, namely education, and how health promotion objectives can be integrated into this task. Evidence of the positive impact of school health promotion on health risk behavior of students is increasing.

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