Effects of Exergaming on Cognitive and Social Functioning of People with Dementia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objectives: Physical activity in people with dementia (PwD) may enhance physical and mental functioning. Exergaming, which combines physical exercise with cognitive stimulation in a gaming environment, was developed to overcome barriers in performing physical activities. We evaluated the effects of exergaming in day care centers (DCCs) for PwD...

Social Touch in Human–Robot Interaction: Robot-Initiated Touches can Induce Positive Responses without Extensive Prior Bonding

Social touch interactions can, depending on the type and strength of the dyadic social relationship, elicit a plethora of physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses; both beneficial and disadvantageous. With the intention to expand the communicative capabilities of humanoid social robots, we investigated whether robot-initiated touches...

Dental caries and externalizing behaviour problems in a high-risk child population

The aim of this study was to assess the association between externalizing behaviour problems and dental caries in children. A further objective was to explore direct and indirect pathways between sociodemographic factors, family functioning and parenting factors, oral health behaviours, externalizing behaviour problems, and dental caries using...

Disturbance-specific social responses in long-finned pilot whales, Globicephala melas

Social interactions among animals can influence their response to disturbance. We investigated responses of long-finned pilot whales to killer whale sound playbacks and two anthropogenic sources of disturbance: Tagging effort and naval sonar exposure. The acoustic scene and diving behaviour of tagged individuals were recorded along with the...

Longitudinal association of neighborhood variables with body mass index in dutch school-age children: The KOALA birth cohort study

Changes in the neighborhood environment may explain part of the rapid increase in childhood overweight and obesity during the last decades. To date few theory-driven rather than data-driven studies have explored longitudinal associations between multiple neighborhood characteristics and child body weight development. We aimed to assess the...

The use of robots in social behavior tutoring for children with ASD

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) may benefit from 'self care' solutions which use social robotics principles. Specifically, the authors propose to use robots in various ways to help such children with the acquisition and training of important pragmatic social behaviors, for example greetings. In order to create such a learning...

Standardisation of environmental enrichment for laboratory mice and rats: Utilisation, practicality and variation in experimental results

Rats and mice are the most commonly used species as laboratory animal models of diseases in biomedical research. Environmental factors such as cage size, number of cage mates and cage structure such as environmental enrichment can affect the physiology and behavioural development of laboratory animals and their well-being throughout their lives....

Ervaringen met ontwikkelingsgerichte zorg voor te vroeg geboren kinderen in een Nederlandse setting [Experience with developmental care for children born preterm in a Dutch setting]

Objective and design. The Leiden Developmental Care Project explored the effects of the basic elements of developmental care (DC: the use of incubator covers and nests) and the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) with individual behavior observations for very premature infants less than 32 weeks of gestation...

The association of behavioural and emotional problems with tobacco use in adolescence

Smoking is a highly addictive behaviour, often initiated during adolescence. It is suggested that smoking is associated with behavioural and emotional problems. This study aims to assess the impact of psychosocial problems on smoking initiation and vice versa. Method: We obtained data on self-reported psychosocial problems and smoking of...

Health related quality of life problems of children aged 8-11 years with a chronic disease

In paediatric research, Health-Related Quality-of-Life (HRQoL) has received increasing recognition as an important health outcome. This study aimed to investigate the nature and prevalence of HRQoL problems in children with different chronic diseases. Data were available on 318 children aged 8-11 years with different diseases: congenital heart...

Theoretical feasibility of suppressing offensive sports chants by means of delayed feedback of sound

A novel approach for disrupting offensive chants at sporting events is proposed, based on attacking synchronization between individuals. Since timing is crucial for coordination between chanters, disruption of timing is expected to be effective against undesired chants. Delayed auditory feedback is known to disrupt timing in individual sound...

Psychosocial problems among immigrant and non-immigrant children: Ethnicity plays a role in their occurrence and identification

Background This study aims to examine a) the prevalence of psychosocial problems and b) the association between parent-reported problems and the identification by doctors and nurses (child health professionals, CHP) working in preventive child health care, among immigrant and non-immigrant children. Methods CHPs examined 4,098 children aged 5...

The development and validation of a handicap questionnaire for children with a chronic illness

Introduction: This paper describes the development and initial psychometric evaluation of the Handicap Scale for Children (HSC). This questionnaire is based on the London Handicap Scale (LHS), a valid and reliable utility instrument for measuring social participation in adults. Methods: A multidisciplinary research group was involved in...

Health-related quality of life in relation to gender and age in couples planning IVF treatment

Background: Specific subgroups of people planning IVF might be at risk of having more psychological or health-related problems. Identification of subgroups at risk may better enable allocation of appropriate counselling. Methods: A group of 425 men and 447 women planning to undergo IVF treatment filled out a questionnaire. Four domains of health...

Behavioural problems in children who weigh 1000 g or less at birth in four countries

Background: The increased survival chances of extremely low-birthweight (ELBW) infants (weighing ≤1000 g at birth) has led to concern about their behavioural outcome in childhood. In reports from several countries with different assessments at various ages, investigators have noted a higher frequency of behavioural problems in such infants, but...

Behaviour and school achievement in patients with early and continuously treated phenylketonuria

Thirty patients with early and continuously treated phenylketonuria (PKU) between 8 and 20 years of age were compared with 30 controls, matched individually for age, sex, and educational level of both parents, on behaviour rating scales for parents and teachers as well as a school achievement scale. PKU patients, as a group, demonstrated more...

The effects of a psychomotor activation programme for use in groups of cognitively impaired people in homes for the elderly

Objectives. To test the effects of the Psychomotor Activation Programme (PAP) on the behaviour and cognition of demented elderly people. Design. Randomized controlled trial with an experimental group and a control group. Post-test after 6 months. Setting. Group care projects for demented elderly people living in 11 different homes for the...