Nutrition is an increasingly important theme in healthcare. This includes the use of personalized apps and online guidance. The Nutrition in Healthcare Alliance recently awarded two grants for promising research into person-oriented nutritional advice in practice. The Nutrition in Healthcare Alliance works on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to help implement the national prevention agreement.
Person-centred evidence-based care
There were twelve registrations from researchers who wanted to win the grant. Ultimately, the choice was made for two proposals that strengthen the focus of the Nutrition in Healthcare Alliance on person-oriented, evidence-based care. ‘On the one hand the importance of the prevention of overweight and obesity and on the other with regard to prehabilitation and recovery,’ says program coordinator Gerda Pot on behalf of the assessment committee. The two winners Dieuwertje Kok and Elske Brouwer-Brolsma were recently honored with two checks worth ten grand.
Preventing complications of colon cancer surgery
Dieuwertje Kok is assistant professor of Nutrition and Cancer at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). Together with researchers and doctors from WUR, Rijnstate and Hospital Gelderse Vallei, she wants to develop personalized, online nutritional advice with her research ‘Opvezelen’. The website of the Nutrition in Care Alliance states: ‘Her research for clinical practice is aimed at increasing the usual fiber intake in the period prior to colon cancer surgery. In this way, complications after surgery can be prevented.
Fiber-Up Tool
She recently showed in a leading publication in JAMA Surgery that a higher habitual fiber intake prior to surgery is associated with a lower risk of postoperative complications.” To see whether it is feasible to increase fiber intake, she and her research team, consisting of researchers and doctors from WUR, Rijnstate and Gelderse Vallei Hospital, want to use an online, personalized nutritional advice: the Vezel-UP tool. This is a new online tool that has been studied in a population of patients with colorectal cancer. Niels Klaassen contributed to the proposal and will carry out the research as part of his PhD.
Online nutrition coach: Eetscore Jr
Elske Brouwer-Brolsma, assistant professor Innovations in Dietary Assessment at WUR, submitted the research proposal Eetscore Jr. in. In concrete terms, it concerns the development of a nutritional coaching tool for children aged eight to ten. She made the proposal together with WUR researchers and a doctor from the Gelderse Vallei Hospital. Zoë van der Heijden will partly conduct the research for her graduation internship and as a junior researcher afterwards. Such a digital nutrition coach is necessary because the number of overweight and obese children in the Netherlands continues to increase, with all the associated health risks.