Het doel heiligt de middelen?

Rede, uitgesproken ter gelegenheid van de aanvaarding van het ambt van bijzonder hoogleraar aan het Erasmus MC - faculteit van de Erasmus Universiteit - vanwege de Stichting Volksbond Rotterdam, gevestigd bij het IVO, met de leeropdracht Verslavingsonderzoek, op 28 maart 200

Inequalities in Health, to Be Continued? A life-course perspective on socio-economic inequalities in health

People in lower socia-economic positions are generally worse off with respect to their health than people in higher positions. The

Dutch experiences in new partnerships between science and practice in health promotion:Toward a fourth-generation university

For a long time already, attempts have been made to bridge the gap between research and practice. In this respect, society demands that universities should have a bigger social impact. University and society/societal organizations should work together (co-create) during the entire research process, from the articulation of the research question until the implementation of the results. There is controversy about the question whether it is possible for universities to work together with practice and at the same time to retain the academic quality standards. First, this article deals with the question what characteristics are important for universities in order to be able to work together with practice. In this respect, the Dutch scientist Steinbuch came up with a tantalizing idea arguing that universities may take a next step and develop into ‘fourth generation universities’. Second, it is described how a process of co-creation between university and the health promotion practice has been developed, bottom up, at Tranzo, Scientific Center for Care and Wellbeing, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. The ideas developed by Steinbuch and the results of the bottom up processes in Tilburg are combined. Consequences of the Tilburg experiences for the characteristics of a fourth-generation university are discussed as well as consequences for the role of universities in society

Assessment van gameverslaving in de klinische praktijk met de C-VAT 2.0

De Clinical Video game Addiction Test (C-VAT 2.0) is een klinische assessment- lijst voor het herkennen van gameverslaving. De C-VAT 2.0 werd in dit onder- zoek gevalideerd in de verslavingszorg bij 32 gameverslaafde cliënten van 12–23 jaar. Deze gameverslaafde cliënten besteden ogenschijnlijk al hun vrije tijd en zelfs een deel van hun schooltijd aan het gamen. De nieuwe test sluit volledig aan bij de voorgestelde negen symptomen voor ‘internet gaming disorder’ uit de DSM-5. De C-VAT 2.0 identificeerde 91 % van de cliënten correct bij een afkap-punt van vijf of meer positieve items, ten opzichte van de negen items in totaal

Ethical considerations for alcohol researchers in their relation towards policy makers

Alcohol policy research all over the world is often funded by national or local governments. Researchers involved may be confronted with several ethical questions. These questions can have quite a different character. Ethical questions may have a severe character that can be quite “clear” for the researchers involved. Miller et al. [1] for instance recently studied interference of funders, like governments or industrial and charitable organizations, in addiction research. Results show that activities occur such as censorship of research outputs, interference with the wording in reports and articles and interventions in when and how findings are released. Governments funding policy research may interfere in a way as described by Miller et al. [1]. but also less obvious ethical issues may occur: What if the research question is formulated in a “questionable” or “suggestive” way? What if policy makers deliberately ignore results of scientific research? The purpose of this contribution is to elaborate on these less obvious ethical issues, not primarily to give clear-cut answers but to raise consciousness and stimulate reflection and debate among researchers and policy makers

Video gaming in a hyperconnected world : a cross-sectional study of heavy gaming, problematic gaming symptoms, and online socializing in adolescents

Aims: Examining online social interactions along with patterns of video gaming behaviors and game addiction symptoms has the potential to enrich our understanding of disorders related to excessive video game play. Methods: We performed latent class analysis in a sample of 9733 adolescents based on heavy use of games, social networking and instant messaging, and game addiction symptoms. We used latent class regression to determine associations between classes, psychosocial well-being and friendship quality. Results: We identified two types of heavy gaming classes that differed in probability of online social interaction. Classes with more online social interaction reported fewer problematic gaming symptoms than those with less online social interaction. Most adolescents estimated to be in heavy gaming classes had more depressive symptoms than normative classes. Male non-social gamers had more social anxiety. Female social gamers had less social anxiety and loneliness, but lower self-esteem. Friendship quality attenuated depression in some male social gamers, but strengthened associations with loneliness in some male non-social gamers. Conclusions: In adolescents, symptoms of video game addiction depend not only on video game play but also on concurrent levels of online communication, and those who are very socially active online report fewer symptoms of game addiction