Neighbourhood social inclusion from the perspective of people with intellectual disabilities:Relevant themes identified with the use of photovoice

Background: Earlier studies show that to gain more understanding of the concept of social inclusion, the views and experiences of people with intellectual disabilities are needed. The aim of this study was to investigate their perspective on neighbourhood social inclusion from an ecological point of view. Method: We carried out a photovoice study with 18 people with intellectual disabilities in three neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. Participants took photographs in their neighbourhood they considered relevant, and these photographs were discussed during an interview. Results: Six themes emerged from qualitative analysis: attractiveness of the neighbourhood, social contacts in the neighbourhood, activities in the neighbourhood, social roles in the neighbourhood, independence and public familiarity. Conclusions: As regards neighbourhood social inclusion, participants were often focused on small and informal activities and situations. Public familiarity proved very important. Framing the concept of neighbourhood social inclusion within an ecological approach may help to better understand processes of social inclusion

The Trade-Off between Female Fertility and Longevity during the Epidemiological Transition in the Netherlands

Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain the relationship between women's fertility and their post-reproductive longevity. In this study, we focus on the disposable soma theory, which posits that a negative relationship between women's fertility and longevity can be understood as an evolutionary trade-off between reproduction and survival. We examine the relationship between fertility and longevity during the epidemiological transition in the Netherlands. This period of rapid decline in mortality from infectious diseases offers a good opportunity to study the relationship between fertility and longevity, using registry data from 6,359 women born in The Netherlands between 1850 and 1910. We hypothesize that an initially negative relationship between women's fertility and their longevity gradually turns less negative during the epidemiological transition, because of decreasing costs of higher parities. An initially inversed U-shaped association between fertility and longevity changes to zero during the epidemiological transition. This does suggest a diminishing environmental pressure on fertility. However, we find no evidence of an initial linear trade-off between fertility and post-reproductive survival

How Grandparents Matter: Support for the Cooperative Breeding Hypothesis in a Contemporary Dutch Population

Low birth rates in developed societies reflect women’s difficulties in combining work and motherhood. While demographic research has focused on the role of formal childcare in easing this dilemma, evolutionary theory points to the importance of kin. The cooperative breeding hypothesis states that the wider kin group has facilitated women’s reproduction during our evolutionary history. This mechanism has been demonstrated in pre-industrial societies, but there is no direct evidence of beneficial effects of kin’s support on parents’ reproduction in modern societies. Using three-generation longitudinal data anchored in a sample of grandparents aged 55 and over in 1992 in the Netherlands, we show that childcare support from grandparents increases the probability that parents have additional children in the next 8 to 10 years. Grandparental childcare provided to a nephew or niece of childless children did not significantly increase the probability that those children started a family. These results suggest that childcare support by grandparents can enhance their children’s reproductive success in modern societies and is an important factor in people’s fertility decisions, along with the availability of formal childcare

Maakt lokaler thuiszorg zorg (on)gelijker? Sociaaleconomische ongelijkheid in de toegang tot huishoudelijke zorg binnen Nederlandse gemeenten voor en na de invoering van de WMO in 2007

The partial decentralisation of long-term care in the Netherlands is accompanied by cutbacks, reduction of individual social rights, and increasing dependency on self-, informal and private care. Are municipalities able to ensure a better distribution of care across socio-economic groups, also in times of retrenchment, as the policy assumption seems to be? In the Dutch context there has been no debate or research around this question. Based on data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), this study looks at the extent to which the decentralisation of home care that took place in 2007 was associated with increasing inequalities in the access to formal care within municipalities

Information and communication technologies to support chronic disease self-management: preconditions for enhancing the partnership in person-centered care

Objective: In order to alleviate the pressure on health care systems exerted by the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, information and communication technologies (ICT) are being introduced to enable self-management of chronic diseases by supporting partnerships between patients and health care professionals. This move towards chronic disease self-management is accompanied by a shift in focus on integrating the patient with his or her perceptions on the chronic disease as a full-fledged partner into the health care system. This new perspective has been described as “person-centered care” (PCC). To date, information and communication technologies only partially build on the principles of PCC. This paper examines the preconditions of ICT to enable a person-centered approach to chronic disease management. Research design and methods: Using cancer treatment as a case study for ICT-enabled PCC, we conducted a comparative analysis of thirteen scientific studies on interventions presented as ICT-enabled PCC for cancer treatment, to answer the research question: What are the preconditions of ICT-enabled PCC in chronic disease management? Based on the intended and actual outcomes, we distilled in several analytic steps the preconditions of ICT-enabled PCC for chronic disease self-management. Results: We distinguished four user-related preconditions of ICT-enabled PCC: (shared) decision making, personalized ICT, health-related quality of life, and efficiency. Conclusion: We argue that these four preconditions together can improve people’s self-management of chronic diseases by strengthening the partnership between the patient and the healthcare professional. Moreover, the study revealed a discrepancy between intended and reported actual outcomes in terms of realizing person-centered care