Nicole Ezendam successfully defends her PhD thesis

Today Nicole Ezendam received her doctorate degree after a successful public defence of her thesis entitled “Vet is niet Vet (Fat aint Phat): studies on the prevention of excessive weight gain among adolescents.” Her thesis encompasses three studies exploring determinants of unnecessary weight gain among adolescents and four studies on the development, effects and the process of the FATaintPHAT intervention. This is a computer-tailored program to motivate and enable adolescents to adopt more healthy dietary and physical activity habits.

Her research shows that the intervention appeared to help the participants to adopt healthier dietary habits, but failed to encourage them to become more physically active

The third Alpe D'Huzes cancer rehabilitation program annual meeting

Today the third annual meeting of the Alpe D'Huzes Cancer Rehabilitation (A-Care) program was held in Amsterdam. A-Care is a comprehensive program of eight PhD studies organised in two subprograms to further our knowledge on the effects of exercise in cancer rehabilitation and survival. The first subprogram focusses on clinical research to study the effects and mechanisms of effect of different exercise regimes in different groups of cancer patients. The second subprogram focusses on ways to implement and disseminate succesful exercise interventions. Dr. Laurien Buffart, the acting coordinator of A-CaRe 1 and a recent 'Bas Mulder award laureat, organised the day.

Prof. Rob Newton (see picture), and Drs. Lee Jones and Renate Winkels provided state of the art overviews of the roles of exercise and diet in cancer rehabilitation and survival, and Prof Wim van Harten and Dr. Mai Chinapaw provided overviews of ghe progress of the two subprograms.

Prof. Christianne de Groot is inaugurated as professor of obstetrics

Yesterday, Prof. Christianne de Groot gave her inaugural address as professor and head of department of obstetrics at the VU University Medical Center. She first presented the well known facts that perinatal mortality is higher in the Netherlands than in surrounding countries. She argued that for a better perinatal care true and close collaboration between extramural and intramural care, between midwifes and obstetricians, in a true women and child care center is of crucial importance. Such close collaborations are now being developed and researched within VUmc and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research.

The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior podcast on our study on computer-tailored nutrition education

In the upcomming issues of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, a paper by Dr. Kroeze et al is published on an evaluation of computer-tailored nutrition education on saturated fat intake among adults. This evaluation was not based on self-reported intakes, but on biomarkers, i.e. blood lipids. In more detail: a group of more than 400 adults receved either computer-tailored nutrition education about their fat intake levels or not, and cholesterol levels were measured in blood samples to assess if exposure to the nutrition education resulted in better blood lipid levels. However, despite clear favorable changes in self-reported fat intake levels, no effects on blood lipids were found. If you want to learn more about this study, and how these conflicting results should ne interpreted, please listen to a podcast interview with the firts author of our paper (look for 9/8/11).

Dr Anna Timperio gives a seminar on home and family determinants of overweight in children

Yesterday, Dr. Anna Timperio, of the Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research of Deakin University gave a seminar on her work on home and family environment determinants of physical activity, eating behaviors, sedentary activities and overweight in children. In her seminar she presented an overview of results of the CLAN and HEAPS studies, two longitudinal studies aiming to unravel why children become overweight or not. Her work shows that family environmental factors, such as example behavior of parents, doing physical acyivities together, and the availability of physical activity equipement in the home, appear to be more important than neighbourhood factors, for children's physical activity.

Home and neighbourhood correlates of weight status among children in low socio-economic neighbourhoods in Australia

Understanding the underlying drivers of obesity-risk behaviours is needed to inform prevention initiatives. People, including children, of lower socioeconomic position groups are more likley to be overweight and obese, and understanding of the drivers of such socio-economic differences in weight status are of special importance. It is very likely that  factors in the home and local neighbourhood environments are of importance. However little research has examined such possible determinants among children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. A study conducted in Victoria, Australia, on this topic was recently published by Prof. David Crawford from the Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition of Deakin University. The study examined home, social and neighbourhood correlates of body mass index in children living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Data were collected from 491 women with children aged 5-12 years living in forty urban and forty rural socioeconomically disadvantaged areas (suburbs) of Victoria. Mothers completed questionnaires about the home environment, social norms and neighbourhood environment in relation to physical activity, healthy eating and sedentary behaviour. Children's height and weight were measured at school or home. The results showed that children who had a television in their bedroom  and whose mothers made greater use of food as a reward for good behaviour had higher body mass index. Increasing efficacy among mothers to promote physical activity, limiting use of food as a reward and not placing TV in children's bedrooms may be important targets for future obesity prevention initiatives in disadvantaged communities.

A new grant to further enrich computer-tailored health education

Computer-tailored health education, i.e. using ICT to provide people with individually tailored feedback and advice to motivate and enable more healthy lifestyles, is a very promising health education technique (see Brug et al for an early overview of the evidence, Oenema et al for a firts study on web-based computer-tailoring, or Kroeze et al for a more recent systematic review). One of the critiques on this form of on-line health education is that it does not include the necessary social interaction to better realise lasting behavior changes. With the development and very fast dissemination of web-based social networks, the distribution of mobile internet, and ever faster and more powerful mobile devices, the possibilities to provide computer-tailored health education where and when it matters, based on objective measures of behavioral patterns, and linking this to social network features become apparant. We have just received notice that we will receive an important research grant, with Dr. Saskia te Velde as the main applicant, in the Partnership programma STW-NIHC-Philips Research“Healthy Lifestyle Solutions” to develop and test such further innovations in computer-tailored health education promoting physical activity among young adults.