The (cost-)effectiveness of an individually tailored long-term worksite health promotion programme on physical activity and nutrition: design of a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of disability and mortality in most Western countries. The prevalence of several risk factors, most notably low physical activity and poor nutrition, is very high. Therefore, lifestyle behaviour changes are of great importance. The worksite offers an efficient structure to reach large groups and to make use of a natural social network. This study investigates a worksite health promotion programme with individually tailored advice in physical activity and nutrition and individual counselling to increase compliance with lifestyle recommendations and sustainability of a healthy lifestyle. METHODS: The study is a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial with the worksite as the unit of randomisation. All workers will receive a standard worksite health promotion program. Additionally, the intervention group will receive access to an individual Health Portal consisting of four critical features: a computer-tailored advice, a monitoring function, a personal coach, and opportunities to contact professionals at request. Participants are employees working for companies in the Netherlands, being literate enou

Appreciation and implementation of the Krachtvoer healthy diet promotion programme for 12- to 14- year-old students of prevocational schools

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Krachtvoer is a school-based healthy diet programme, developed in 2001 and revised in 2007 to meet the needs of particular segments of the target population as well as a wider target group. The main aims of the present process evaluation of the revised programme were to examine student and teacher appreciation of the programme, completeness of and adherence to its implementation, and relations between appreciation and completeness of implementation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were collected among 22 teachers and 1117 students of 13 schools, using student evaluation forms, teacher logbooks, telephone interviews, and classroom observations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results indicate favourable levels of teacher and student appreciation for the programme in general and the revised elements. Girls, first-year students and students with more favourable dietary intakes particularly appreciated individual programme elements. Levels of completeness of implementation were high, but several teachers did not adhere to the intended implementation period. Some moderately strong relations were found between teacher appreciation and completeness of implementation scores.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that the revisions have resulted in a programme that was appreciated well, also by the extended target group, and was implemented with a high degree of completeness. Teacher appreciation proved potentially important for completeness of implementation. We identified several aspects requiring improvement, indicating the importance of continued programme updates and repeated evaluation.</p

Vitamins and minerals: issues associated with too low and too high population intakes

There is an ongoing increase in the availability of foods fortified with micronutrients and dietary supplements. This may result in differing intakes of micronutrients within the population and perhaps larger differences in intakes. Insight into population micronutrient intakes and evaluation of too low or too high intakes is required to see whether there are potential problems regarding inadequacy or excessive intakes. Too low population intakes are evaluated against an estimated average requirement; potential too high population intakes are evaluated against a tolerable upper intake level (UL). Additional health effects, seriousness, and incidence of these health effects are not considered but these can be taken into account in a benefit-risk assessment. Furthermore, authorities would like to regulate food fortification and supplementation in such a way that most of the population is not at risk of potentially high intakes. Several models are available for estimating maximum levels of micronutrients for food fortification and dietary supplements. Policy makers and risk managers need to decide how to divide the ‘free space’ between food fortification and/or dietary supplements, while protecting populations from adverse health effects

Ons eten gemeten;Gezonde voeding en veilig voedsel in Nederland.Samenvatting en kernboodschap

zie voor het hele rapport:270555007Ons voedsel is veiliger dan ooit, maar Nederlanders eten te veel en verkeerd. Hierdoor wordt aanzienlijk gezondheidsverlies geleden en leven we gemiddeld twee jaar korter. Dat zijn enkele belangrijke conclusies uit het rapport "Ons eten gemeten". Dit rapport geeft voor de eerste keer in Nederland een totaaloverzicht van de beschikbare kennis op het gebied van de voedselconsumptie, de voedselveiligheid, en de gevolgen voor de gezondheid op lange termijn.Food in the Netherlands is safer than ever before, but the Dutch eat too much and the wrong types of food. This causes a substantial health loss and shortens life-expectancy by an average 2 years. These are some important conclusions from a report that was originally written in Dutch, entitled "Ons eten gemeten". This English brochure contains a translation of the summary and keymessages of the original Dutch reportVW

Ons eten gemeten - Gezonde voeding en veilig voedsel in Nederland

English translation of RIVM report 270555007Ons voedsel is veiliger dan ooit, maar Nederlanders eten te veel en verkeerd. Hierdoor wordt aanzienlijk gezondheidsverlies geleden en leven we gemiddeld twee jaar korter. Dat zijn enkele belangrijke conclusies uit het rapport "Ons eten gemeten". Dit rapport geeft voor de eerste keer in Nederland een totaaloverzicht van de beschikbare kennis op het gebied van de voedselconsumptie, de voedselveiligheid, en de gevolgen voor de gezondheid op lange termijn.Food in the Netherlands is safer than ever before, but the Dutch eat too much and the wrong types of food. This causes a substantial health loss and shortens life-expectancy with on average 2 years. These are some important conclusions from a report that was originally written in Dutch, entitled "Ons eten gemeten"".VW