ISBNPA 2010 will start tonight

This evening the 9th annual conference of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity (ISBNPA) will start. Today the preconference workshops were held, one on computer-tailored nutrition & physical activity education. With keynotes by Knut-Inge Klepp, Pascal Sheeran, Robert Jeffrey, Deborah Tate, and David Ludwig, symposia, oral presentations and posters on all cutting edge behavioral nutrition and physical activity research topics, the local organisasing committee, led by Simone French of the University of Minnesota, together with the scientific committee, led by the upcoming ISBNPA president, Knut-Inge Klepp, have come up with a great program.

Alpe D'Huez has been concurred by the VUmc team for Alpe D'HuZes

Last thursday a team of VU University Medical Center professors, Post doctoral students and PhD students cycled up and down Alpe D'Huez mountain in behalf of the Alpe D'HuZes foundation to raise money for research to support cancer patients and survivors. Our combined team did more than 40 climbs to Alpe D'Huez (...all participants combined did over 10,000 climbs...I was lucky to be the 10,000th at the finish line when I completed my 7th...), and we raised more than 60,000 Euros.

Click here for my personal video impression of the event day.

Money raised by Alpe D'HuZes supports the A-Care program (Alpe D'HuZes Cancer Rehabilitation research program) coordinated at the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, and chairs in 'Living with Cancer' and 'Nutrition and Cancer' both embedded in the EMGO Institute.

8 days until alpe d'huzes

Eight days to go until the Alpe D'Huzes fund raiser. On June 3 almost 3000 cyclist will climb Alpe D'Huez mountain for one or more times. A substantial number of those 3000 will go for six climbs on that one day. This effort is undertaken by these cycling crazies in order to raise as much money as possible for research aiming to inform and improve 'living with cancer'.

The Alpe D'Huzes foundation organises this event. Alpe D'Huzes means something like 'Alpe Six Times' in Dutch. In 2006 the event was organised for the first time on the 6th of June, when the founding fathers of Alpe D'Huzes, Peter Kapitein and Coen van Veenendaal cycled the Alpe six times with a small group of other people dedicated to do some cycling for a great cause. The money raised from 2006 on goes to the Netherlands Cancer Society, to a specific fund for research that fits the Alpe D'Huzes. The money raised so far goes, among other things, to the Alpe D'Huzes Cancer Rehabilitation Project (A-CaRe), to the endowed chair in 'Living with Cancer' , i.e. Professor Irma Verdonck, at the department of Clinical Psychology, and very soon to an endowed chair in nutrition and cancer at the department of Health Sciences at the VU University and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University/VU University Medical Center.

As the director of the EMGO Institute, I participated in the event last year, indeed completing the six climbs; click here for a video impression of my experiences in 2009.

This year the VU University Medical Center participates with 3 teams in the event. Led by our dean, professor Wim Stalman, the VU University Medical Center has formed three teams of cancer researchers. One of the teams is the so-called 'Pro(f)' team, consisting of professors; I am one of their riders, please see my personal participant page. Another is the 'talent team' consisting of PhD students.
Yester day the Pro and Talent teams had a joined training ride, right through the center of the Netherlands, from Overveen in the west, to Papendal, near Arnhem in the east. Coffee and cake were served in Rhenen, in our dean’s back yard, where some team photos were made. Please click here for a short video impression and here for some photos.

The training session showed that we are ready for the event next week.

Rosemarie Dröes inaugurated as Professor of Psychosocial care for people with dementia

Last Friday, Rosemarie Dröes held her inaugural address to accept her chair in Psychosocial care for people with dementia. Professor Dröes’ chair is at the department of Nursing home Medicine of the VU University medical center. She is the head of the research program on care and support in dementia’ of the department of Psychiatry of the VU University medical center and the Regional Institute for Mental Health Services GGZ-inGeest in Amsterdam. Her research is embedded in the Quality of Care program of the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research. Professor Dröes’ presentation clearly illustrated her past performance and future ambitions in conducting excellent research in order to develop, implement and disseminate improved dementia care practice.

A seminar by colleagues from the Center for Physical Activity and Nutrtion Research (C-Pan), Deakin University

On Friday May 21 Prof. Jo Salmon and Dr. Lukar Thornton give a seminar at the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research. Prof. Salmon will spend her sabbatical at the institute, and Dr. Thornton was over for just a few days. EMGO+ has a successful ongoing collaboration with C-PAN. We collaborate on different The director of C-PAN, Prof. David Crawford is a visiting professor at EMGO+.
Prof. Salmon’s presentation is on ‘Standing up for children's health: reducing children's sedentary time at school and home’, while Lukar Thornton will speak about ‘Current approaches to measurements of food environments and some approaches for the future’.

A course on mediation analysis within the ENERGY project

In behaviour nutrition and physical activity research the focus is more and more on indentifying the interplay between different behavioral determinants, i.e. on indentifying the causal pathways from more distal to more proximal determinants to health behaviors and health outcomes. In health behaviour change intervention research, the focus is more and more on why, i.e. through what causal pathways interventions work or not.

To answer such research questions, mediation analysis is key. Within the “EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive weight Gain among Youth” (ENERGY)-project, such analyses are a main focus to indeed identify the mediating pathways of determinants of energy balance-related eating and physical activity behaviors, and the mediating path ways through which energy-balance interventions have their effects. Today, Drs. Maartje van Stralen and Saskia te Velde and Mine Yildrim, MSc led a workshop to introduce the ENERGY researchers in mediation analyses. The introductory course was attended by colleagues from the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Australia.

EGEA conference: A conference on promotion of fruits and vegetables

From Wednesday to this Friday a conference was held in Brussels on the role of fruits and vegetables in pursuing the social and health benefits of a balanced diet. This is the 6th so-called EGEA conference on this topic, supported by the European Commission. I had the honour and pleasure to give the opening key note on the role of socio-economic determinants in promoting fruits and vegetables. I especially used results of the Pro Children, Schoolgruiten, and Pro Greens studies to illustrate the socio-economic disparities and the potential to address these with school-based fruit and vegetable promotion programs.

During the rest of the conference evidence was presented on the associations of fruit and vegetable intakes with morbidity and mortality, on different health promotion schemes to encourage fruits and vegetables, on physical, social and economical influences on fruit and vegetable intakes, and on European Commission research an policy projects on fruit and vegetable promotion.