Parental knowledge reduces long term anxiety induced by false-positive test results after newborn screening for cystic fibrosis

Background: False-positive screening results in newborn screening for cystic fibrosis may lead to parental stress, family relationship problems and a changed perception of the child's health. Aim of the study: To evaluate whether parental anxiety induced by a false positive screening result disappears after six months and to assess whether a...

Predictive factors of postpartum fatigue: A prospective cohort study among working women

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate which prepartum determinants contribute to the development of postpartum (PP) fatigue among working women in the Netherlands. Methods A prospective cohort study in 15 Dutch companies was conducted to measure different potential predictors using self-administrated questionnaires at baseline and...

Comparing high altitude treatment with current best care in Dutch children with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (and asthma): Study protocol for a pragmatic randomized controlled trial (DAVOS trial)

Background: About 10 to 20% of children in West European countries have atopic dermatitis (AD), often as part of the atopic syndrome. The full atopic syndrome also consists of allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis and food allergy. Treatment approaches for atopic dermatitis and asthma include intermittent anti-inflammatory therapy with...

Melatonin for commercial aircrew?

This primary objective of this paper is to discuss the usefulness of melatonin for reducing symptoms of circadian rhythm disturbances in aircrew. Literature and own data of circadian disruptions and symptoms of aircrew were analysed. Considerations concerning the use of melatonin by aircrew are discussed. The main outcomes were as follows....

Walking or vitamin B for cognition in older adults with mild cognitive impairment? A randomised controlled trial

Objective: To examine the effects of aerobic exercise or vitamin B supplementation on cognitive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Design: Randomised placebo-controlled trial. Setting: General community. Participants: Community-dwelling adults aged 70-80 with MCI. Interventions : The 152 participants were randomly...

Workdays, in-between workdays and the weekend: A diary study on effort and recovery

Objectives: Effort-recovery theory (Meijman and Mulder in Handbook of work and organizational psychology, Psychology Press/Erlbaum, Hove, pp 5-33, 1998 proposes that effort expenditure may have adverse consequences for health in the absence of sufficient recovery opportunities. Thus, insight in the relationships between effort and recovery is...

Associations between self-reported sleep disturbance and environmental noise based on reanalyses of pooled data from 24 studies.

This study establishes functions that specify self-reported sleep disturbance in relation to the exposure to nighttime transportation noise, by reanalyzing pooled data from previous studies. Results are based on data from 28 original datasets obtained from 24 field studies (4 studies collected data regarding 2 sources) including almost 23,000...

Level of agreement between patient self-report and observer ratings of health-related quality of life communication in oncology

Objective: To determine the level of agreement between patients and observers regarding the frequency with which health-related quality of life topics are discussed during outpatient clinical oncology visits. Methods: The sample (n = 50) consisted of a consecutive series of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Both the patients and observers...

Do bullied children get Ill, or do Ill children get bullied? A prospective cohort study on the relationship between bullying and health-related symptoms

OBJECTIVES. A number of studies have shown that victimization from bullying behavior is associated with substantial adverse effects on physical and psychological health, but it is unclear which comes first, the victimization or the health-related symptoms. In our present study, we investigated whether victimization precedes psychosomatic and...

Evening dietary tryptophan improves post-sleep behavioral and brain measures of memory function in healthy subjects

Brain serotonin function has been implicated in the control of sleep and sleep related memory dysfunctions are attributed to deficient brain serotonin activity. Depletion of the serotonin precursor tryptophan reduces brain serotonin function and is found to cause sleep abnormalities and cognitive decline. We hypothesized that enhancing pre-sleep...

Behavioral effects of modafinil in marmoset monkeys

Rationale: Modafinil is increasingly used in sleep disturbances in general and in neurodegenerative diseases and is recently being used in healthy people for attention control. However, the application of modafinil is possibly not only restricted to alertness enhancing effects. More insight in this compound may lead to new applications. Not all...

Occupation-specific screening for future sickness absence: Criterion validity of the trucker strain monitor (TSM)

Background: Monitoring psychological job strain may help occupational physicians to take preventive action at the appropriate time. For this purpose, the 10-item trucker strain monitor (TSM) assessing work-related fatigue and sleeping problems in truck drivers was developed. Objectives: This study examined (1) test-retest reliability, (2)...

Bullying behavior and associations with psychosomatic complaints and depression in victims

Objectives: To assess the association between bullying behavior and a wide variety of psychosomatic health complaints and depression. Study design: In a cross-sectional study, 2766 elementary school children age 9 to 12 years filled out a questionnaire on bullying behavior and health complaints. Three groups - bullied children, active bullies,...

Noise sensitivity and reactions to noise and other environmental conditions

This article integrates findings from the literature and new results regarding noise sensitivity. The new results are based on analyses of 28 combined datasets (N=23 038), and separate analyses of a large aircraft noise study (N=10939). Three topics regarding noise sensitivity are discussed, namely, its relationship with noise exposure, its...

Aircraft noise exposure from Schiphol airport: A relation with complainants

The possible relation between aircraft noise exposure and the prevalence of complainants around Schiphol airport was studied. The home address of people who complain about aircraft noise at the Environment Advisory Committee Schiphol was combined with annual average noise levels, using a Geographic Information System. The prevalence of...

Noise exposure and public health

Exposure to noise constitutes a health risk. There is sufficient scientific evidence that noise exposure can induce hearing impairment, hypertension and ischemic heart disease, annoyance, sleep disturbance, and decreased school performance. For other effects such as changes in the immune system and birth defects, the evidence is limited. Most...

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...