Email-based health promotion for pregnant women in the Netherlands

In 2006, the Dutch government initiated Hello World, an email-based program promoting healthy lifestyles among pregnant women through quizzes with pregnancy-related questions. In 2008, an updated version was released.
In a paper just published in BMC Research Notes, with Hanneke van Dongen as first author we examined the reach of Hello World and the representativeness of its users for all pregnant women in the Netherlands, explored the relationship between program engagement and lifestyle characteristics, and investigated the relationship between the program content the participants accessed (content on smoking, physical activity, and nutrition) and their lifestyles.
Data from 4,363 pregnant women were obtained and analyzed. 
Hello World reached only about 4% of its target population. Relatively few lower educated and immigrant women registered for the program. Active participation in the program was positively related with more healthy lifestyles among the women but the participants did not necessarily choose the content that was most relevant for them to further improve their health behavior. ' Hello World' was noy continued as a separate health promotion site, but the information and feedback was integrated in the information of the Youth & Family centers (centrum jeugd en gezin informatiebank)lan, explored the relationship between program engagement and lifestyle characteristics, and investigated the relationship between the program content the participants accessed (content on smoking, physical activity, and nutrition) and their lifestyles.
Data from 4,363 pregnant women were obtained and analyzed. 
Hello World reached only about 4% of its target population. Relatively few lower educated and immigrant women registered for the program. Active participation in the program was positively related with more healthy lifestyles among the women but the participants did not necessarily choose the content that was most relevant for them to further improve their health behavior. ' Hello World' was noy continued as a separate health promotion site, but the information and feedback was integrated in the information of the Youth & Family centers (centrum jeugd en gezin informatiebank)

Hand hygiene in neonatal care

Good hand hygiene compliance, i.e. regular hand washing according to protocol, is essential to prevent infections in healthcare settings. To measure how well hospital workers comply to good hand hygiene is difficult. Direct observation of hand hygiene compliance is the gold standard but is time consuming, and thus expensive; furthermore, observations are an intervention in itself and may thus give biased result of true compliance to hand hygiene protocol. An electronic dispenser for hand alcohol with built-in wireless recording equipment allows continuous monitoring of its usage. 
The purpose of a study we conducted that was just published in BMC Infectious Diseases was to monitor the use of alcohol-based hand rub dispensers with a built-in electronic counter in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting and to determine compliance with hand hygiene protocols by direct observation. A one-year observational study was conducted at a 27 bed level III NICU at a university hospital. All healthcare workers employed at the NICU participated in the study. The use of bedside dispensers was continuously monitored and compliance with hand hygiene was determined by random direct observations.

In 65.8% of the 1,168 observations of patient contacts requiring hand hygiene, healthcare workers fully complied with the protocol. We conclude that the electronic devices provide useful information on frequency, time, and location of its use, and also reveal trends in hand disinfection events over time. Direct observations offer essential data on compliance with the hand hygiene protocol. In future research, data generated by the electronic devices can be supplementary used to evaluate the effectiveness of hand hygiene promotion campaigns.

A review of socio economic differences in physical activity in Europe

In a paper just published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity we reviewed the current research on socio-economic differences in physical activity in Europe. 

Considerable differences in the direction of inequalities were seen for the different domains of physical activity (PA). Most studies reported that those with high socioeconomic position were more physically active during leisure-time compared to those with low socioeconomic position. Occupational PA was more prevalent among the lower socioeconomic groups. Socioeconomic differences in total PA and active transport PA did not show a consistent pattern.