Publications by authors named "Nijhof S"

Background: Childhood overweight and obesity prevalence steeply increased during recent decades, prompting the development of many digital behavioral dietary interventions (DBDIs). However, a coherent overview is lacking, which is crucial for delineating research in this field.

Objective: This scoping review outlines the landscape of DBDIs for improving dietary behaviors in children and adolescents, including delivery modes, design and development approaches, behavioral theory, and outcomes assessed.

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Unlabelled: This study is to investigate the effects of social restrictions, induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, on play behavior, and the associations with mental well-being in children with a chronic physical condition. Additionally, we explored potential moderating effects of environmental factors. Data from the PROactive cohort study including children with a chronic physical condition was used.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a web-based cognitive-behavioral therapy program called "Fatigue In Teenagers on the interNET" with videocall-delivered activity management for adolescents aged 11-17 with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
  • Adolescents in the trial received either treatment for six months, and the effectiveness was measured using the 36-item Short Form Health Survey Physical Function subscale.
  • The trial involved random assignment of 314 adolescents, although participants and their families could not be blinded to their treatment group.
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Importance: Atherogenesis starts during childhood, making childhood and adolescence an important window of opportunity to prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease later in life.

Objective: To identify early-life risk factors for preclinical atherosclerosis in adolescence.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study is part of the ongoing Wheezing Illness Study in Leidsche Rijn (WHISTLER) prospective birth cohort study, which includes 3005 healthy newborns born between December 2001 and December 2012 in the Leidsche Rijn area of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

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Background: In patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), momentary cortisol concentrations in blood, urine, and saliva are lower compared to healthy controls. Long-term cortisol concentration can be assessed through hair, but it is unclear whether these concentrations are also lower. Additionally, it is unknown if lower cortisol extends to other patients suffering from persistent fatigue and how hair cortisol concentration (HCC) relates to fatigue levels.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Out of these, 20 tools were gamified, while 14 were serious games, with serious games showing a higher diversity of game mechanics—55 unique mechanics were identified in total.
  • * Although 85% of the tools justified the use of gamification to enhance user engagement, only 45% provided reasons for specific game mechanics; moreover, there is a lack of experimental research assessing gamification's effectiveness in this context.
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Objective: In this study, we examined the extent to which parents and their children with a chronic condition communicate their stress to one another and whether stress communication is associated with different forms of dyadic coping.

Methods: In a sample of 239 parent-child dyads, self-reported stress communication and different forms of perceived dyadic coping (i.e.

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Objective: To examine individual outcomes after tailored lifestyle (PROfeel) or generic dietary advice as self-management intervention for persistent fatigue in adolescents and young adults with a chronic condition, to compare participants who did and did not benefit and to explore changes to factors in the biopsychosocial model of fatigue after PROfeel.

Method: A multiple single-case AB-phase design was embedded in a randomized crossover trial (N = 45). Intensive longitudinal data (ILD) on outcomes 'fatigue severity', 'self-efficacy' and 'quality of life' (QoL) were collected through weekly smartphone measurement for 20 weeks.

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Objectives: To evaluate the use of two self-management intervention strategies for persistent fatigue in adolescents and young adults with a fatigue syndrome or rheumatic condition.

Design: A randomized crossover trial administering tailored lifestyle advice and generic dietary advice, each 12 weeks, with a four-week washout period between.

Methods: Sixty participants (aged 12-29) were included.

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Background: With the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) participants are asked to provide self-reports of their symptoms, feelings, thoughts and behaviours in daily life. This preregistered systematic review assessed how ESM is being used to monitor emotional well-being, somatic health, fatigue and pain in children and adolescents with a chronic somatic illness.

Methods: Databases were searched from inception.

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Background: Fatigue is a distressing and prevalent long-term sequela of treatment for childhood cancer, and there is a need for longitudinal studies to investigate the development of fatigue over time. The objective of this study was to calculate growth-curves for the longitudinal development of fatigue after treatment for childhood cancer, and to investigate the effects of biopsychosocial predictors.

Materials And Methods: Participants were recruited from a patient monitoring program and data extracted from medical records.

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Article Synopsis
  • Children treated for cancer often face cognitive challenges, with emotional functioning and fatigue potentially influencing these issues.
  • A study assessed 137 post-cancer treatment children and found significantly lower scores in emotional, cognitive functioning and higher fatigue compared to peers.
  • Fatigue was found to mediate the relationship between emotional and cognitive functioning, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to manage fatigue to improve cognitive outcomes.
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The Permutation Distancing Test (PDT) is a nonparametric test for evaluating treatment effects in dependent single-case observational design (SCOD) AB-phase data without linear trends. Monte Carlo methods were used to estimate the PDT power and type I error rate, and to compare them to those of the Single-Case Randomization Test (SCRT) assuming a randomly determined intervention point and the traditional permutation test assuming full exchangeability. Data were simulated without linear trends for five treatment effect levels (- 2, - 1, 0, 1, 2), five autocorrelation levels (0, .

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Introduction: For people with cystic fibrosis (CF), gaining access to elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) therapy, a new modulator drug combination, is perceived as a positive life event. ETI leads to a strong improvement of disease symptoms. However, some people with CF experience a deterioration in mental wellbeing after starting ETI therapy.

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Background: Adolescents growing up with a chronic condition might experience more social vulnerabilities compared to their healthy peers as an indirect result of their conditions. This can lead to a relatedness need frustration for these adolescents. Consequently, they might spend more time playing video games compared to their peers.

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Unlabelled: More than 25% of all children grow up with a chronic disease. They are at higher risk for developmental and psychosocial problems. However, children who function resiliently manage to adapt positively to these challenges.

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To assess self-reported quantity and quality of sleep in Dutch children with a chronic condition compared to healthy controls and to the recommended hours of sleep for youth. Sleep quantity and quality were analyzed in children with a chronic condition (cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, congenital heart disease, (auto-)immune disease, and medically unexplained symptoms (MUS); n = 291; 15 ± 3.1 years, 63% female.

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Background: Bivalent mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines encoding the ancestral and omicron spike (S) protein were developed as a countermeasure against antigenically distinct SARS-CoV-2 variants. We aimed to assess the (variant-specific) immunogenicity and reactogenicity of mRNA-based bivalent omicron (BA.1) vaccines in individuals who were primed with adenovirus-based or mRNA-based vaccines encoding the ancestral spike protein.

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Objective: To evaluate associations between self-reported biopsychosocial factors and persistent fatigue with dynamic single-case networks.

Methods: 31 persistently fatigued adolescents and young adults with various chronic conditions (aged 12 to 29 years) completed 28 days of Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) with five prompts per day. ESM surveys consisted of eight generic and up to seven personalized biopsychosocial factors.

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Background: Severe fatigue is a prominent symptom among adolescents with a chronic medical condition, with major impact on their well-being and daily functioning. Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (I-CBT) is a promising treatment for severe fatigue among adolescents with a chronic medical condition, but its effectiveness has not been studied.

Aims: We developed an I-CBT intervention for disabling fatigue in a chronic medical condition and tested its feasibility and effectiveness in an adolescent with an immune dysregulation disorder (IDD), namely juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

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Objective: To investigate whether a paediatric Short Fatigue Questionnaire (pSFQ) assesses a valid construct for subjective fatigue, to assess its psychometric properties and provide a cut-off score for severe fatigue in children.

Methods: The pSFQ consists of 4 items from the Checklist Individual Strength-8 (CIS-8). Data of previous studies using the CIS-8 were used to assess the pSFQ in healthy children (n = 316), children with chronic fatigue syndrome (n = 173), and children with a chronic disease (n = 442).

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Article Synopsis
  • * The systematic review will examine the use of gamified eHealth interventions, focusing on the game mechanics used, the rationale behind their implementation, and any observed effects, particularly in comparison to traditional management approaches.
  • * The review will adhere to established guidelines, analyzing studies from databases like Embase and Psycinfo, and involve independent reviewers to ensure the quality and reliability of the findings while maintaining ethical standards due to the use of publicly available data.
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Background: Children's views of health were explored in order to develop a health dialogue tool for children.

Methods: A qualitative research design was used as part of a codesign process. Based on semi-structured interviews with both healthy children and children with a chronic condition (aged 8-18).

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Background: Chronic fatigue with a debilitating effect on daily life is a frequently reported symptom among adolescents and young adults with a history of Q-fever infection (QFS). Persisting fatigue after infection may have a biological origin with psychological and social factors contributing to the disease phenotype. This is consistent with the biopsychosocial framework, which considers fatigue to be the result of a complex interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors.

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Children with a chronic condition face more obstacles than their healthy peers, which may impact their physical, social-emotional, and cognitive development. The PROactive cohort study identifies children with a chronic disease at high risk of debilitating fatigue, decreased daily life participation and psychosocial problems, as well as children who are resilient and thrive despite the challenges of growing up with a chronic condition. Both groups will teach us how we can best support children, adolescents and parents to adapt to and manage a disease, as well as tailor interventions to their specific needs.

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