Physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and childhood asthma: a European collaborative analysis.

Objectives: To investigate the associations of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour in early childhood with asthma and reduced lung function in later childhood within a large collaborative study.

Design: Pooling of longitudinal data from collaborating birth cohorts using meta-analysis of separate cohort-specific estimates and analysis of individual participant data of all cohorts combined.

Setting: Children aged 0-18 years from 26 European birth cohorts.

Implementation of an integrated community approach in deprived neighbourhoods: a theory-based process evaluation using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).

Background: We investigated the implementation process of an Integrated Community Approach (ICA) applied in four low socio-economic status neighbourhoods in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The ICA is a Population Health Management initiative and aims to improve population health, quality of care, professional's satisfaction and decrease costs of care. This study addresses the facilitators and barriers for implementing the ICA from a stakeholder perspective, including steering group members, professionals and citizens.

Two sides of the same coin? Absolute income and perceived income inadequacy as social determinants of health.

Background: Absolute income is commonly used in studies of health inequalities, however it does not reflect spending patterns, debts, or expectations. These aspects are reflected in measures concerning perceived income inadequacy. While health inequities by absolute income or perceived income inadequacy are well established, few studies have explored the interplay of absolute income and perceived income inadequacy in relation to health.

Battling the obesity epidemic with a school-based intervention: Long-term effects of a quasi-experimental study.

Background: School-based health-promoting interventions are increasingly seen as an effective population strategy to improve health and prevent obesity. Evidence on the long-term effectiveness of school-based interventions is scarce. This study investigates the four-year effectiveness of the school-based Healthy Primary School of the Future (HPSF) intervention on children's body mass index z-score (BMIz), and on the secondary outcomes waist circumference (WC), dietary and physical activity (PA) behaviours.

Spatial variation in tobacco smoking among pregnant women in South Limburg, the Netherlands, 2016-2018: Small area estimations using a Bayesian approach.

The aim of this study was to provide small area estimations (SAE) of smoking prevalence during pregnancy in South Limburg, the Netherlands. To illustrate improvements in accuracy and precision of estimates compared to traditional frequentist analyses, we used Bayesian inference with the Integrated nested Laplace approximation to account for spatial structures and area-level proxies. Results revealed a heterogenous prevalence of smoking with a range between 6.

Longitudinal Associations of Substance Use Risk Profiles with the Use of Alternative Tobacco Products and Conventional Smoking among Adolescents.

Although personality is associated with the onset of substance use (i.e., conventional smoking, alcohol use, and cannabis use) during adolescence, it is unclear whether personality traits are also associated with the onset of use of alternative tobacco products (ATPs), i.

Is Loneliness an Undervalued Pathway between Socio-Economic Disadvantage and Health?

Loneliness is a growing public health issue. It is more common in disadvantaged groups and has been associated with a range of poor health outcomes. Loneliness may also form an independent pathway between socio-economic disadvantage and poor health.

Does Loneliness Have a Cost? A Population-Wide Study of the Association Between Loneliness and Healthcare Expenditure.

Loneliness has been associated with unhealthy behavior, poorer health, and increased morbidity. However, the costs of loneliness are poorly understood. Multiple sources were combined into a dataset containing a nationally representative sample ( = 341,376) of Dutch adults (18+).

Stability of and change in substance use risk personality: Gender differences and smoking cigarettes among early adolescents.

Objective: Adolescents show a steadily increasing inclination toward health risk behaviors, including smoking cigarettes. There is ample evidence that personality traits are related to smoking behavior. However, less is known about the stability of and change in these personality traits during early adolescence and whether smoking behavior affects the developmental trajectories.

Relationships of self-management abilities to loneliness among older people: a cross-sectional study.

Background: We investigated relationships of broader self-management abilities (self-efficacy, positive frame of mind, investment behavior, taking initiatives, multifunctionality of resources, variety of resources) to social and emotional loneliness among community-dwelling older people while controlling for background characteristics.

Methods: This cross-sectional study employed a representative sample of 41,327 community-dwelling people aged ≥55 years in Limburg, the Netherlands, identified using the population register (weighted per district, complex sampling design). In total, 20,327 (50%) people responded to the questionnaire.

Can the Healthy Primary School of the Future offer perspective in the ongoing obesity epidemic in young children? A Dutch quasi-experimental study.

Objectives: Schools play an important role in promoting healthy behaviours in children and can offer perspective in the ongoing obesity epidemic. The 'Healthy Primary School of the Future' (HPSF) aims to improve children's health and well-being by enhancing school health promotion. The current study aims to assess the effect of HPSF on children's body mass index (BMI) z-score after 1 and 2 years follow-up and to investigate whether HPSF has different effects within specific subgroups of children.

Unravelling the Effects of the Healthy Primary School of the Future: For Whom and Where Is It Effective?

The 'Healthy Primary School of the Future' (HPSF) aims to integrate health and well-being within the whole school system. This study examined the two-year effects of HPSF on children's dietary and physical activity (PA) behaviours at school and at home and investigated whether child characteristics or the home context moderated these effects. This study ( = 1676 children) has a quasi-experimental design with four intervention schools, i.

The Moderating Role of the School Context on the Effects of the Healthy Primary School of the Future.

: The current study investigated the moderating role of the school context on the effects of a Dutch health promoting school initiative on children's health and health behaviors. : The study used a mixed-methods design. The school context ( = 4) was assessed by the characteristics of the school population, teacher's health-promoting (HP) practices, implementers' perceived barriers, school's HP elements, and dominating organizational issues.

Assessing the role of criminality in neighbourhood safety feelings and self-reported health: results from a cross-sectional study in a Dutch municipality.

Background: Neighbourhood safety has repeatedly been shown to be associated with the health and well-being of the residents. Criminality is often seen as one of the key factors affecting neighbourhood safety. However, the relationship between crime, fear of crime and feelings of safety remains underexplored.

Process evaluation of the healthy primary School of the Future: the key learning points.

Background: While schools have potential to contribute to children's health and healthy behaviour, embedding health promotion within complex school systems is challenging. The 'Healthy Primary School of the Future' (HPSF) is an initiative that aims to integrate health and well-being into school systems. Central to HPSF are two top-down changes that are hypothesized as being positively disruptive to the Dutch school system: daily free healthy lunches and structured physical activity sessions.

One- and Two-Year Effects of the Healthy Primary School of the Future on Children's Dietary and Physical Activity Behaviours: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

Schools can help to improve children's health. The 'Healthy Primary School of the Future' (HPSF) aims to sustainably integrate health and well-being into the school system. This study examined the effects of HPSF on children's dietary and physical activity (PA) behaviours after 1 and 2 years' follow-up.

Results of outdoor smoking bans at secondary schools on adolescents smoking behaviour: a quasi-experimental study.

Background: Research on the effectiveness of school smoking policies on adolescents' smoking behaviour remain inconclusive. This study evaluates the results of an outdoor school ground smoking ban at secondary schools on adolescents smoking behaviour, taking individual characteristics into account.

Methods: Data on 2684 adolescents from 18 Dutch secondary schools (nine with and nine without an outdoor smoking ban) were obtained at two moments.

The Healthy Primary School of the Future: A Contextual Action-Oriented Research Approach.

Schools can play an important role in promoting children's health behaviours. A Dutch initiative, 'The Healthy Primary School of the Future', aims to integrate health and well-being into the school system. We use a contextual action-oriented research approach (CARA) to study the implementation process.

Evaluation of the Process of Implementing an Outdoor School Ground Smoking Ban at Secondary Schools.

Background: Although outdoor smoking bans at school are becoming important, it remains unclear whether successful implementation is feasible and what conditions promote it. Therefore, this study evaluates the implementation process by identifying important factors.

Methods: Interviews were held with directors of 24 secondary schools that had decided to implement an outdoor school ground smoking ban, to identify important factors during implementation.

Socioeconomic multi-domain health inequalities in Dutch primary school children.

Background: This study assesses socio-economic health inequalities (SEHI) over primary school-age (4- to 12-years old) across 13 outcomes (i.e. body-mass index [BMI], handgrip strength, cardiovascular fitness, current physical conditions, moderate to vigorous physical activity, sleep duration, daily fruit and vegetable consumption, daily breakfast, exposure to smoking, mental strengths and difficulties, self-efficacy, school absenteeism and learning disabilities), covering four health domains (i.

Impact of an Outdoor Smoking Ban at Secondary Schools on Cigarettes, E-Cigarettes and Water Pipe Use among Adolescents: An 18-Month Follow-Up.

The effectiveness of outdoor smoking bans on smoking behavior among adolescents remains inconclusive. This study evaluates the long-term impact of outdoor school ground smoking bans among adolescents at secondary schools on the use of conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes (with/without nicotine) and water pipes. Outdoor smoking bans at 19 Dutch secondary schools were evaluated using a quasi-experimental design.

Monitoring of need for recovery and prolonged fatigue within the working population: Evaluation of reliability and agreement over time.

Background: Need for recovery (NFR) and prolonged fatigue are two important concepts for monitoring short- and long-term outcomes of psychological job demands within employees. For effective monitoring it is, however, important to gain insight in the reproducibility of the instruments that are used.

Objective: The objective was to assess reproducibility of the NFR scale and Checklist Individual Strength (CIS), measuring NFR and prolonged fatigue respectively, in the working population.

Sustainability of outdoor school ground smoking bans at secondary schools: a mixed-method study.

Background: Although increasing numbers of countries are implementing outdoor school ground smoking bans at secondary schools, less attention is paid to the post-implementation period even though sustainability of a policy is essential for long-term effectiveness. Therefore, this study assesses the level of sustainability and examines perceived barriers/facilitators related to the sustainability of an outdoor school ground smoking ban at secondary schools.

Methods: A mixed-method design was used with a sequential explanatory approach.

The trait and occasion components of fatigue and their association with sickness absence.

Objective: Fatigue is an important health outcome in public and occupational health care. To correctly understand and treat high levels of (prolonged) fatigue it is important to disentangle the state of fatigue into a time-varying (occasion) and -invarying (trait) component. Not only for understanding of the construct itself over time but also for its relation with (health) outcomes such as sickness absence.

Development of prediction models for upper and lower respiratory and gastrointestinal tract infections using social network parameters in middle-aged and older persons -The Maastricht Study.

The ability to predict upper respiratory infections (URI), lower respiratory infections (LRI), and gastrointestinal tract infections (GI) in independently living older persons would greatly benefit population and individual health. Social network parameters have so far not been included in prediction models. Data were obtained from The Maastricht Study, a population-based cohort study (N = 3074, mean age (±s.