How good are the studies that evaluatie front of pack food labeling?

front of pack labels on food products are very common nowadays. They are meant to help consumers make informed decisions regarding what they buy and eat. The effects of such front of pack labels on consumer and producer behavior has been evaluated in a number of studies. In a earlier published studies we, with Dr. Ellis Vyth as first author, studied the effects of the choices / 'ik kies bewust' logo, and found that such a logo appears to be more effective in encouraging food producers to make 'healthier' food products -i.e. food products that comply to the logo's standards -, than in promoting healthier choices among consumers. Dr. Vyth has subsequently taken the lead in providing an overview of studies evaluation front of pack logo's and has reviewed the methodological quality of such studies. A paper describing this review just appeared in e-pub in the journal Nutrition Reviews. The quality of 31 studies was assessed. The results showed that the methodological quality of published front-of-pack labeling research is generally low to mediocre; objective observational data-based consumer studies were of higher quality than consumer studies relying on self-reports. Experimental studies that included a control group were lacking. The review further revealed a lack of a validated methodology to measure the use of front-of-pack labels and the effects of these labels in real-life settings. In conclusion, few methodologically sound front-of-pack labeling studies are presently available. The evidence for effects for front of pack labeling is thus weak.

Peter Kapitein received his honorary doctorate

Friday October 19 the Dies Natalis of the VU University was celebrated. At this annual event Peter Kapitein, founding father of the Alpe D'HuZes foundation and Inspire2Live, and the personification of patient advocate for patient participation in research, treatment, care and policy regarding cancer prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, received an honorary doctorate.

before this event a symposium was held, organised by Peter Kapitein together with the VUmc Cancer Center Amsterdam (VUmc-CCA). At this symposium, in a full Amsterzaal -with over 200 attendees -, the director of VUmc-CCA and professor of Hematology Prof. Peter Huijgens first discussed issues, dilemma's and progress in cancer treatment and care with two patients. Thereafter, the tow endowed chairs of Alpe D'HuZes -Profs Irma Verdonck and Ellen Kampman presented and discussed their work in research on 'living with cancer'  and 'nutrition and cancer', and Prof Guus van Dongen presented the developments in and future promise of advanced imaging techniques in realizing a more personalized cancer treatment. After a short brake, Stephen Friend the President of Sage Bionetworks, and Prof. Hans Clevers, the president of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, provided presentations. Friend presented his views that understanding human biology requires a new community-based vision of open access innovation that respects and links all stakeholders -including patients, researchers, medical professional, policy makers, and industry- and supports a new culture of cooperative, data-intensive science. He pledged to take up this challenge and for this he has drafted the Sage Bionetworks Commons Principles to guide the development of an open source community where computational biologists can develop and test competing models built from common resources.
Prof. Clevers presented his work on the origins of colon cancer.
After the symposium the attendees rushed to the Dies Natalis event to witness the ceremony granting the honorary doctorate to Peter Kapitein.

Tomorrow Peter Kapitein will receive his honorary doctorate

Tonight we had a preparatory dinner organized by the vice chancellor of the VU University Amsterdam to get ready for tomorrow's 'dies natalis', i.e. the university's 132nd birthday. At this celebration event two honorary doctorates will be granted, to Peter Kapitein, the ambassador and one of the founders of the Alpe D'Huzes foundation, and to the world famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.
I have the honor to serve as Peter Kapitein's 'honorary promotor'.

Peter Kapitein receives this award in recognition of his exceptional contribution to research into improving the opportunities for ‘living with cancer’. Since its start in 2006, the Alpe D'Huzes foundation has contributed about 100 M€ to the Netherlands Cancer Foundation for cancer research, with a specific focus on research to improve 'living with cancer', i.e. research to support better evidence-based cancer rehabilitation, psychosocial support for cancer patients, et cetera. Additionally Peter Kapitein is a strong advocate and example for 'patient participation in cancer research, treatment and care. Before the Dies celebration a special symposium entitled 'Patients Firts' will be held to present and discuss important developments in cancer research.

Media attention for publication of the design of the SPOTLIGHT project to identify obesogenic environments across Europe

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Europe is high. It is a major cause of the overall rates of many of the main chronic (or non communicable) diseases in this region and is characterized by an unequal socio-economic distribution within the population. Obesity is largely determined by modifiable lifestyle behaviours such as low physical activity levels, sedentary behaviour and consumption of energy dense diets. It is increasingly being recognised that effective responses must go beyond interventions that only focus on a specific individual, social or environmental level and instead embrace system-based multi-level intervention approaches that address both the individual and environment. The EU-funded project "sustainable prevention of obesity through integrated strategies" (SPOTLIGHT) aims to increase and combine knowledge on the wide range of determinants of obesity in a systematic way, and to identify multi-level intervention approaches that are strong in terms of Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance. A paper describing the design an rationale for SPOTLIGHT was published this week in its definite form in BMC Public Health; this publication is 'highly accessed'. The publication of the paper was picked up by some media, including a coverage by Food Navigator.

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.