Integrating youth mental health practice nurses into general practice: effects on outpatient mental health care utilization among children and adolescents.

Integration of child mental health services in general practice may improve early detection and treatment and reduce strain on specialized services. In this study we investigated whether outpatient mental health care utilization and associated costs in children and adolescents were affected by the introduction of youth mental health practice nurses (YMHPNs) in general practice. We linked healthcare data of the Rijnmond Primary Care Database to municipal registry data on child outpatient mental health care expenditures between 2019 and 2022.

Lessons learned for pandemic preparedness in the neurodegenerative research and clinical fields: an advice report based on Parkinson's disease as an example.

Background: A sustainable pandemic preparedness strategy is essential to ensure equitable access to healthcare for individuals with neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, it is vital to provide clinicians and researchers in the neurodegenerative disease fields with resources and infrastructure to ensure continuity of their work during a (health) crisis.

Methods: We established an international collaboration between researchers, clinicians, and patient representatives from the Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

Children and young people's consultation rates for psychosocial problems between 2016 and 2021 in the Netherlands.

Background: Worldwide, there are concerns about declining mental health of children and young people (CYP).

Objectives: To examine trends in GP consultation rates for psychosocial problems and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We performed a population-based cohort study using electronic GP records of CYP (0-24 years) living in the Rotterdam metropolitan area between 2016 and 2021.

Healthcare avoidance during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and all-cause mortality: a longitudinal community-based study.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, global trends of reduced healthcare-seeking behaviour were observed. This raises concerns about the consequences of healthcare avoidance for population health.

Aim: To determine the association between healthcare avoidance during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and all-cause mortality.

The prevalence, incidence and management of low back pain with radiating leg pain in Dutch general practice: A population-based cohort study in the Rijnmond Primary Care Database.

Background: Radiating leg pain is common in patients with low back pain (LBP). In this study, we aimed to determine the prevalence and incidence of LBP with radiating leg pain in Dutch general practice, and to describe the prescribed medications and requested imaging diagnostics.

Methods: The Rijnmond Primary Care Database containing over 500,000 primary care patients was used to select patients ≥18 years with LBP with radiating leg pain between 2013 and 2021.

Evaluation of practice nurses' management of paediatric psychosocial problems in general practice.

Background: Child mental health services are under major pressure worldwide. In the Netherlands, Youth Mental Health Practice Nurses (YMHPNs) have been introduced in general practice to improve access to care. In this study, we evaluated care delivered by YMHPNs.

Air pollution and childhood respiratory consultations in primary care: a systematic review.

Background: Outdoor air pollution is a known risk factor for respiratory morbidity worldwide. Compared with the adult population, there are fewer studies that analyse the association between short-term exposure to air pollution and respiratory morbidity in children in primary care.

Objective: To evaluate whether children in a primary care setting exposed to outdoor air pollutants during short-term intervals are at increased risk of respiratory diagnoses.

Blood pressure measurements for diagnosing hypertension in primary care: room for improvement.

Background: In the adult population, about 50% have hypertension, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and subsequent premature death. Little is known about the quality of the methods used to diagnose hypertension in primary care.

Objectives: The objective was to assess the frequency of use of recognized methods to establish a diagnosis of hypertension, and specifically for OBPM, whether three distinct measurements were taken, and how correctly the blood pressure levels were interpreted.

Dutch GP healthcare consumption in COVID-19 heterogeneous regions: an interregional time-series approach in 2020-2021.

Background: Many countries observed a sharp decline in the use of general practice services after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research has not yet considered how changes in healthcare consumption varied among regions with the same restrictive measures but different COVID-19 prevalence.

Aim: To investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare consumption in Dutch general practice during 2020 and 2021, among regions with known heterogeneity in COVID-19 prevalence, from a pre-pandemic baseline in 2019.

A Natural Language Processing Model for COVID-19 Detection Based on Dutch General Practice Electronic Health Records by Using Bidirectional Encoder Representations From Transformers: Development and Validation Study.

Background: Natural language processing (NLP) models such as bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) hold promise in revolutionizing disease identification from electronic health records (EHRs) by potentially enhancing efficiency and accuracy. However, their practical application in practice settings demands a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to development and validation. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted challenges in disease identification due to limited testing availability and challenges in handling unstructured data.

Incidence and management of mallet finger in Dutch primary care: a cohort study.

Background: A mallet finger (MF) is diagnosed clinically and can be managed in primary care. The actual incidence of MF and how it is managed in primary care is unknown.

Aim: To determine the incidence of MF in primary care and to obtain estimates for the proportions of osseous and tendon MF.

Patellofemoral pain in general practice: the incidence and management.

Background: Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is a nontraumatic knee problem primarily observed in physically active adolescents. The objective of this study was to determine the incidence and management of PFP in children and adolescents in general practice.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using a regional primary care database containing full electronic health records of over 300,000 patients.

Patient perspectives on telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods community-based study.

Background: Detailed community-based perspectives on patient experiences with telemedicine are currently lacking, yet essential to assess clinical applicability of telemedicine during and beyond pandemics, alike COVID-19. The aim of this study was to expose patient perspectives on virtual compared to in-person consultations, including determinants of these preferences.

Methods: We invited 5864 participants of the population-based Rotterdam Study to fill in a validated questionnaire using both close-ended and free-text questions.

Comorbidity in incident osteoarthritis cases and matched controls using electronic health record data.

Background: Comorbidities are common in patients with osteoarthritis (OA). This study aimed to determine the association of a wide range of previously diagnosed comorbidities in adults with newly diagnosed OA compared with matched controls without OA.

Methods: A case-control study was conducted.

Capturing the SARS-CoV-2 infection pyramid within the municipality of Rotterdam using longitudinal sewage surveillance.

Despite high vaccination rates in the Netherlands, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to circulate. Longitudinal sewage surveillance was implemented along with the notification of cases as two parts of the surveillance pyramid to validate the use of sewage for surveillance, as an early warning tool, and to measure the effect of interventions. Sewage samples were collected from nine neighborhoods between September 2020 and November 2021.

Changes to consultations and diagnosis of osteoarthritis in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: General practitioners (GP) are often the first medical professionals to treat musculoskeletal complaints. Yet the impact of COVID-19 on primary care utilisation for musculoskeletal complaints is largely unknown. This study quantifies the impact of the pandemic on primary care utilisation for musculoskeletal complaints and specifically osteoarthritis (OA) in the Netherlands.

Rise and fall of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Rotterdam: Comparison of wastewater and clinical surveillance.

Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater (WW) is a promising tool for epidemiological surveillance, correlating not only viral RNA levels with the infection dynamics within the population, but also to viral diversity. However, the complex mixture of viral lineages in WW samples makes tracking of specific variants or lineages circulating in the population a challenging task. We sequenced sewage samples of 9 WW-catchment areas within the city of Rotterdam, used specific signature mutations from individual SARS-CoV-2 lineages to estimate their relative abundances in WW and compared them against those observed in clinical genomic surveillance of infected individuals between September 2020 and December 2021.

Normalisation of SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in wastewater: The use of flow, electrical conductivity and crAssphage.

Over the course of the Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020-2022, monitoring of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ribonucleic acid (SARS-CoV-2 RNA) in wastewater has rapidly evolved into a supplementary surveillance instrument for public health. Short term trends (2 weeks) are used as a basis for policy and decision making on measures for dealing with the pandemic. Normalisation is required to account for the dilution rate of the domestic wastewater that can strongly vary due to time- and location-dependent sewer inflow of runoff, industrial discharges and extraneous waters.

Occurrence of comorbidity following osteoarthritis diagnosis: a cohort study in the Netherlands.

Objective: To determine the risk of comorbidity following diagnosis of knee or hip osteoarthritis (OA).

Design: A cohort study was conducted using the Integrated Primary Care Information database, containing electronic health records of 2.5 million patients from the Netherlands.

The role of area level social deprivation on childhood and adolescent consultation rate in primary care: a population based, cohort study.

Background: Studies show that children and adolescents in the most socially deprived areas (SDA) consult their general practitioner (GP) more often than those in the least socially deprived areas (Non-SDA). Given that GPs see a wide range of diseases, it is important to know which clinical diagnoses are shaped by socioeconomic factors. The primary objective was to determine the association between area level social deprivation and consultation rates in a pediatric population.

GPs' and practice nurses' views on their management of paediatric anxiety problems: an interview study.

Background: Anxiety problems are common in both children and adolescents, and many affected children do not receive appropriate treatment. Understaffing of mental healthcare services and long waiting lists form major barriers. In the Netherlands, practice nurses have been introduced into general practice to support general practitioners (GPs) in the management of psychosocial problems.

Sex-specific patterns and lifetime risk of multimorbidity in the general population: a 23-year prospective cohort study.

Background: Multimorbidity poses a major challenge for care coordination. However, data on what non-communicable diseases lead to multimorbidity, and whether the lifetime risk differs between men and women are lacking. We determined sex-specific differences in multimorbidity patterns and estimated sex-specific lifetime risk of multimorbidity in the general population.

Epidemiology and management of hepatitis B and C in primary care in the Netherlands: data from the Rijnmond Primary Care database.

Background: The Dutch guideline for general practitioners (GPs) advises biannual surveillance of hepatitis B (HBV) patients and referral of every hepatitis C (HCV) patient. We aimed to study the prevalence, incidence, and the management of hepatitis B and C in primary care.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study using the Rijnmond Primary Care database (RPCD), including health care data of medical records of GPs of approximately 200,000 patients in the area of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Anxiety problems in children and adolescents: a population-based cohort study on incidence and management in Dutch primary care.

Background: Due to a large strain on youth mental health care, general practice is suggested as an alternative treatment setting for children and adolescents with anxiety problems. However, research on the current management of these children and adolescents within general practice is scarce.

Aim: To investigate the incidence of coded anxiety in general practice using the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC), and GPs' management of children and adolescents presenting with anxiety problems.