Design of a model for a professional development programme for a multidisciplinary science subject in the Netherlands.

Schools are increasingly integrating multidisciplinary education into their programmes. The Minister of Education, Culture and Science has introduced a new, integrated science subject in secondary education in the Netherlands, called Nature, Life and Technology (NLT). This research note describes the design of a generic model for a professional development programme to prepare teachers with and assist them during the implementation of a multidisciplinary science module. Three sources were used for this design: subject features including school practices, the curriculum design phases, and professional development characteristics, in combination with three factors influencing the quality of the professional development: context, process and content. These sources and factors have been translated into a generic model. Three experts evaluated this generic model: a teacher trainer who was also involved in the development of NLT modules; a biology and NLT teacher who was also involved in a regional NLT information centre; and a chemistry and NLT teacher. Overall, the experts were positive. They judged 12 out of 13 aspects of the model as sufficient or better. They were, however, critical about the issue of whether the model offers sufficient possibilities for participants to familiarise themselves with new subject content knowledge

Life years lost for users of specialized mental healthcare

Background: Mental disorders are burdensome and are associated with increased mortality. Mortality has been researched for various mental disorders, especially in countries with national registries, including the Nordic countries. Yet, knowledge gaps exist around national differences, while also relatively less studies compare mortality of those seeking help for mental disorders in specialized mental healthcare (SMH) by diagnosis. Additional insight into such mortality distributions for SMH users would be beneficial for both policy and research purposes. We aim to describe and compare the mortality in a population of SMH users with the mortality of the general population. Additionally, we aim to investigate mortality differences between sexes and major diagnosis categories: anxiety, depression, schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders, and bipolar disorder.Methods: Mortality and basic demographics were available for a population of N = 10,914 SMH users in the north of The Netherlands from 2010 until 2017. To estimate mortality over the adult lifespan, parametric Gompertz distributions were fitted on observed mortality using interval regression. Life years lost were computed by calculating the difference between integrals of the survival functions for the general population and the study sample, thus correcting for age. Survival for the general population was obtained from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).Results: SMH users were estimated to lose 9.5 life years (95% CI: 9.4–9.6). Every major diagnosis category was associated with a significant loss of life years, ranging from 7.2 (95% CI: 6.4–7.9) years for anxiety patients to 11.7 (95% CI: 11.0–12.5) years for bipolar disorder patients. Significant differences in mortality were observed between male SMH users and female SMH users, with men losing relatively more life years: 11.0 (95% CI: 10.9–11.2) versus 8.3 (95% CI: 8.2–8.4) respectively. This difference was also observed between sexes within every diagnosis, although the difference was insignificant for bipolar disorder. Conclusion: There were significant differences in mortality between SMH users and the general population. Substantial differences were observed between sexes and between diagnoses. Additional attention is required, and possibly specific interventions are needed to reduce the amount of life years lost by SMH users.</p

Real-World Treatment Costs and Care Utilization in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder With and Without Psychiatric Comorbidities in Specialist Mental Healthcare

BACKGROUND: The majority of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have comorbid mental conditions. OBJECTIVES: Since most cost-of-illness studies correct for comorbidity, this study focuses on mental healthcare utilization and treatment costs in patients with MDD including psychiatric comorbidities in specialist mental healthcare, particularly patients with a comorbid personality disorder (PD). METHODS: The Psychiatric Case Register North Netherlands contains administrative data of specialist mental healthcare providers. Treatment episodes were identified from uninterrupted healthcare use. Costs were calculated by multiplying care utilization with unit prices (price level year: 2018). Using generalized linear models, cost drivers were investigated for the entire cohort. RESULTS: A total of 34,713 patients had MDD as a primary diagnosis over the period 2000–2012. The number of patients with psychiatric comorbidities was 24,888 (71.7%), including 13,798 with PD. Costs were highly skewed, with an average ± standard deviation cost per treatment episode of €21,186 ± 74,192 (median €2320). Major cost drivers were inpatient days and daycare days (50 and 28% of total costs), occurring in 12.7 and 12.5% of episodes, respectively. Compared with patients with MDD only (€11,612), costs of patients with additional PD and with or without other comorbidities were, respectively, 2.71 (p < .001) and 2.06 (p < .001) times higher and were 1.36 (p < .001) times higher in patients with MDD and comorbidities other than PD. Other cost drivers were age, calendar year, and first episodes. CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric comorbidities (especially PD) in addition to age and first episodes drive costs in patients with MDD. Knowledge of cost drivers may help in the development of future stratified disease management programs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40273-021-01012-x

Een goed geformuleerd, juist antwoord bij scheikunde en biologie:Deel 1 Analyseren

In NVOX 2016, nr. 5 deden we verslag van ons onderzoek naar de taalvaardigheid van 4-havoleerlingen bij de vakken scheikunde en biologie. In het kader van de ontwikkeling van die taalvaardigheid hadden we het zogenaamde ‘Taalteken’ ontworpen, waardoor leerlingen hun antwoorden met minder taalfouten gingen formuleren. Dat was al een hele verbetering en het Taalteken werd op onze school bij alle vakken ingevoerd. Toch waren we nog niet tevreden. Alleen aandacht voor taal en formulering bleek niet voldoende om leerlingen inhoudelijk beter te leren formuleren. Daarom zijn we een nieuw onderzoek begonnen, waaruit een driedelige lessenreeks is gekomen waarbij leerlingen in verschillende stappen redeneervaardigheden leren. In dit artikel beschrijven we het eerste deel van de lessenreeks