People with moderate to profound intellectual disabilities (ID) have a higher risk of health problems and, therefore, healthy living is of great importance for them. To achieve this, this group requires support from the people around them such as relatives and direct support professionals (DSPs). However, DSPs do not feel sufficiently equipped to provide this support. The objective of Annelies Overwijk’s research was to determine how to facilitate a healthy lifestyle for people with moderate to profound ID by improving the lifestyle support provided by DSPs. To this end, DSPs’ support needs were first explored after which a training and education program was developed, implemented, and evaluated. In this thesis, DSPs indicated that they need knowledge and skills to provide lifestyle support. One of the skills they can help use to stimulate people with ID is the use of behavioral change techniques. This thesis shows that, although a number of these techniques are used in daily practice, they are not yet consciously utilized to improve lifestyle support. Since the attitude of DSPs to support healthy nutrition is important, a practical questionnaire was also developed to measure this. Based on DSPs’ support needs for encouraging a healthy lifestyle, a training and education program was developed together with them and experts. This program consists of an e-learning and three in-person sessions that can be adapted to the support needs of the DSPs and the team and proved to be promising in an implementation study. The products are free and available on: www.dekrachtengebundeld.nl.
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Professionals and clients see the potential of apps and wearables in supporting an active lifestyle. However, they are not yet widely used due to barriers such as limitations of current apps and concerns about the use by clients. Future research ideas: • Gain more insight into the factors that explain the acceptance and use of these technologies for both professionals and clients. • Finding out how professionals can be supported in using apps and wearables.
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Background: For a healthy lifestyle, people with moderate, severe, and profound intellectual disabilities living in residential facilities and/or participating in day activity centers are dependent on their direct support professionals. However, it is unclear what knowledge and skills these direct support professionals require to support these individuals in living a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the needs of direct support professionals for supporting these people with moderate to profound intellectual disabilities to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Method: Direct support professionals (n = 28) were interviewed with the use of a semi-structured protocol based on the theoretical domains framework. The interviews were analyzed with a theory-driven content analysis. Results: The most frequently mentioned needs referred to the following domains of the theoretical domains framework: environmental context and resources (n = 27), social/professional role and identity (n = 25), social influence (n = 25), skills (n = 24), and knowledge (n = 23). Conclusion: To support people with moderate to profound intellectual disabilities in leading a healthy lifestyle, direct support professionals (DSPs) primarily needed support related to the domain environmental context and resources. Within this domain available time, dealing with different seasons, and a healthy lifestyle policy in the organization need attention. Development of interventions targeting these DSPs needs is required.
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Over a million people in the Netherlands have type 2 diabetes (T2D), which is strongly related to overweight, and many more people are at-risk. A carbohydrate-rich diet and insufficient physical activity play a crucial role in these developments. It is essential to prevent T2D, because this condition is associated with a reduced quality of life, high healthcare costs and premature death due to cardiovascular diseases. The hormone insulin plays a major role in this. This hormone lowers the blood glucose concentration through uptake in body cells. If an excess of glucose is constantly offered, initially the body maintains blood glucose concentration within normal range by releasing higher concentrations of insulin into the blood, a condition that is described as “prediabetes”. In a process of several years, this compensating mechanism will eventually fail: the blood glucose concentration increases resulting in T2D. In the current healthcare practice, T2D is actually diagnosed by recognizing only elevated blood glucose concentrations, being insufficient for identification of people who have prediabetes and are at-risk to develop T2D. Although the increased insulin concentrations at normal glucose concentrations offer an opportunity for early identification/screening of people with prediabetes, there is a lack of effective and reliable methods/devices to adequately measure insulin concentrations. An integrated approach has been chosen for identification of people at-risk by using a prediabetes screening method based on insulin detection. Users and other stakeholders will be involved in the development and implementation process from the start of the project. A portable and easy-to-use demonstrator will be realised, based on rapid lateral flow tests (LFTs), which is able to measure insulin in clinically relevant samples (serum/blood) quickly and reliably. Furthermore, in collaboration with healthcare professionals, we will investigate how this screening method can be implemented in practice to contribute to a healthier lifestyle and prevent T2D.
Our world is changing rapidly as a result of societal and technological developments that create new opportunities and challenges. Extended Realities (XR) could provide solutions for the problems the world is facing. In this project we apply these novel solutions in food and hospitality. It aims to tackle fundamental questions on how to stimulate a healthy and vital society that is based on a sustainable and innovative economy. This project aims to answer the question: How can Extended Reality (XR) technologies be integrated in the design of immersive food experiences to stimulate sustainable consumption behavior? A multidisciplinary approach, that has demonstrated its strength in the creative industry, will be applied in the hospitality and food sector. The project investigates implications and design considerations for immersion through XR technology that can stimulate sustainable consumption behavior. Based on XR prototypes, physiological data will be collected using biometric measuring devices in combination with self-reports. The effect of stimuli on sustainable consumption behavior during the immersive experience will be tested to introduce XR implementations that can motivate long-term behavioral change in food consumption. The results of the project contribute towards developing innovations in the hospitality sector that can tackle global societal challenges by exploiting the impact of new technology and understanding of consumer behavior to promote a healthy lifestyle and economy. Next to academic publications and conference contributions, the project will develop a handbook for hospitality professionals. It will outline steps and design criteria for the implementation of XR technologies to create immersive experiences that can stimulate sustainable consumption behavior. The knowledge generated in the project will contribute to the development of the curriculum at the Academy for Hotel and Facility at Breda University of Applied Sciences by introducing a technology-driven experience design approach for the course Sustainable Strategic Business Design.
Aanleiding: Blijven bewegen is voor ouderen van belang om zo lang mogelijk zelfstandig thuis te kunnen functioneren en te kunnen blijven participeren in de samenleving. Uit onderzoek blijkt echter dat slechts de helft van de 65-plussers voldoet aan de Nederlandse Norm Gezond Bewegen. Doelgerichte interventies op maat zijn nodig om hen aan het bewegen te houden. Fysiotherapeuten en oefentherapeuten Mensendieck en Cesar willen met een nieuw preventie-aanbod adequaat anticiperen op de beginnende fysieke functioneringsproblemen van ouderen. Maar preventie is een ander en nieuwer kennisdomein dan zorg en vraagt om andere en nieuwe kennis en vaardigheden van de professionals. Het implementeren van innovaties in de zorg- of preventiemarkt blijkt in de praktijk bovendien niet gemakkelijk. Doelstelling Het hoofddoel van dit RAAK-project is om in nauwe samenwerking met ouderen de basis te verstevigen voor het duurzaam implementeren van preventieve beweegprogramma's voor ouderen door fysio- en oefentherapeuten. In het project wordt voortgebouwd op de Functionele Training Ouderen (FTO), een state-of-the-art preventief beweegprogramma dat op korte termijn effectief gebleken is in een onderzoeksomgeving, maar nog niet breed is geïmplementeerd. In zogenoemde KennisNetwerk Ouderen en Preventie (KNOP)-teams geven professionals en de beoogde eindgebruikers (ouderen 70+) samen vorm aan de implementatie van FTO en aan het realiseren van het gelieerde onderzoek. Beoogde resultaten De concrete resultaten van dit project zijn onder andere: " een handleiding van een preventief beweegprogramma; " best practices voor implementatie van preventieve beweegprogramma's in verschillende praktijksituaties; " een minor over het onderwerp; " casussen in CGO- en PGO-onderwijs over preventief bewegen bij 70+-ouderen; " meerdere publicaties. Om een goed netwerk te bouwen streeft het consortium ernaar ten minste 300 therapeuten te bereiken van wie ten minste 50 FTO geïmplementeerd hebben en de overige bereid zijn tot implementeren. Aanleiding: Blijven bewegen is voor ouderen van belang om zo lang mogelijk zelfstandig thuis te kunnen functioneren en te kunnen blijven participeren in de samenleving. Uit onderzoek blijkt echter dat slechts de helft van de 65-plussers voldoet aan de Nederlandse Norm Gezond Bewegen. Doelgerichte interventies op maat zijn nodig om hen aan het bewegen te houden. Fysiotherapeuten en oefentherapeuten Mensendieck en Cesar willen met een nieuw preventie-aanbod adequaat anticiperen op de beginnende fysieke functioneringsproblemen van ouderen. Maar preventie is een ander en nieuwer kennisdomein dan zorg en vraagt om andere en nieuwe kennis en vaardigheden van de professionals. Het implementeren van innovaties in de zorg- of preventiemarkt blijkt in de praktijk bovendien niet gemakkelijk. Doelstelling Het hoofddoel van dit RAAK-project is om in nauwe samenwerking met ouderen de basis te verstevigen voor het duurzaam implementeren van preventieve beweegprogramma's voor ouderen door fysio- en oefentherapeuten. In het project wordt voortgebouwd op de Functionele Training Ouderen (FTO), een state-of-the-art preventief beweegprogramma dat op korte termijn effectief gebleken is in een onderzoeksomgeving, maar nog niet breed is geïmplementeerd. In zogenoemde KennisNetwerk Ouderen en Preventie (KNOP)-teams geven professionals en de beoogde eindgebruikers (ouderen 70+) samen vorm aan de implementatie van FTO en aan het realiseren van het gelieerde onderzoek. Beoogde resultaten De concrete resultaten van dit project zijn onder andere: " een handleiding van een preventief beweegprogramma; " best practices voor implementatie van preventieve beweegprogramma's in verschillende praktijksituaties; " een minor over het onderwerp; " casussen in CGO- en PGO-onderwijs over preventief bewegen bij 70+-ouderen; " meerdere publicaties. Om een goed netwerk te bouwen streeft het consortium ernaar ten minste 300 therapeuten te bereiken van wie ten minste 50 FTO geïmplementeerd hebben en de overige bereid zijn tot implementeren.
