Published on November 7, 2024 – The article “Doing it Together; Testing the Impersonal Impact Hypothesis in the Public Health Domain” won the prize for best article of 2023 in the European Journal of Health Communication during ECREA last September.
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Published on October 31, 2024 – New research by ACHC researchers and colleagues from the Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek shows the potential of audiovisual materials to reduce patients’ anxiety and improve knowledge, understanding, and physiological responses within oncology care.
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Published on October 17, 2024 – At the end of September, a group of ACHC researchers traveled to Ljubljana, Slovenia for the 2024 ECREA conference. They attended inspiring sessions and presented their most recent research. In this news message, we provide a summary of our talks.
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Published on October 3, 2024 – In the beginning of September, a group of ACHC researchers travelled to Zaragoza, Spain for the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare (ICCH). They attended inspiring sessions and presented their most recent research. In this news message, we provide a summary of our talks.
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Published on September 19, 2024 – The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) is hosting its fall symposium on Tuesday, November 12, 2024. This time the theme is “Predicting and communicating health risks”. The symposium will be led by Leonie Westerbeek and Gizem Yilmaz.
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Published on September 26, 2024 – In the first week of September, a group of ACHC researchers travelled to sunny Cascais, Portugal for the annual conference of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) to present their most recent research. In this news message, we provide a summary of our talks.
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Published on September 5, 2024 – After a long day, plopping down on the couch with your dinner and turning on your favorite TV series might sound appealing, but it is not beneficial for your health. Recently, the BBC published an article on this topic, featuring an interview with ACHC […]
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Published on August 29, 2024 – The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication had a great summer and is now off to a good start of the new academic year. We will be teaching the revised seminar Health Communication to a new cohort of master students, and will attend a variety […]
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Published on July 4, 2024 – Despite multifactorial falls risk assessment tools (FRATs) being an effective method for preventing falls in older adults (65+), they are often underutilized in clinical practice. ACHC members Sara Groos (also Amsterdam UMC), Annemiek Linn, and Julia van Weert examined whether the use and implementation […]
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Published on June 27, 2024 – ACHC member Leonie Westerbeek recently wrapped up her PhD dissertation and started a postdoc project on effective and responsible AI-based shared decision-making in healthcare.
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Published on June 13, 2024 – ACHC researcher Nida Gizem Yilmaz has received an Urban Mental Health grant for a project on how a personalized culturally-sensitive chatbot can contribute to secondary prevention in three generations of Dutch-Turkish and Dutch-Moroccan migrants with depression and/or non-suicidal self-injurious behavior.
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Published on June 6, 2024 – When patients with incurable cancer do not have any standard treatment options anymore, they can sometimes decide to participate in an early phase clinical trial (i.e. experimental treatment with uncertain outcomes). The decision to participate or not can be complicated for patients. In her […]
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Published on May 30, 2024 – In a recent episode of the podcast “Onder mediadoctoren” ACHC director prof. dr. Julia van Weert shares her expertise on health communication. The episode (in Dutch) titled “How communication scientists make people healthier” and presented by media scientists Linda Duits and Vincent Crone, focuses […]
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Published on May 23, 2024 – On March 29, 2024, Rita Araujo (University of Minho, Portugal) gave a guest lecture at ASCoR about research into the role of communication for promoting health behavior during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Published on May 16, 2024 – On 25 and 25 March 2024 the 13th annual conference of the Association for Researchers in Psychology and Health (ARPH) took place in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The main topic of the conference was Building bridges for health. ACHC members Kaiyang Qin and Adriana Solovei […]
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Published on May 2, 2024 – On April 2nd, 2024, the ACHC symposium ‘Health in Connection’ took place supported by NeFCA, ASCoR, and NWO. The symposium was well-attended and attracted people from all spheres of society. People who wanted to learn more about the specific research being conducted on social […]
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Published on April 25, 2024 – Patients with incurable cancer who no longer have any standard treatment options, may sometimes decide to participate in early phase clinical trials. Because no hard evidence yet exists that patients will benefit from these trials, integrating patient values into the decision-making process is crucial. […]
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Published on April 18, 2024 – Falls in elderly, a critical global concern amidst the aging population, is now addressed by a groundbreaking artificial intelligence system. Published in Nature Medicine, researchers from the AMC together with Julia van Weert and Annemiek Linn developed a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) designed to […]
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Published on April 11, 2024 – ACHC researcher Nida Gizem Yilmaz has received a ZonMw grant for a project on mapping the determinants of depression in first, second, and third generation Dutch-Turkish and Dutch-Moroccan migrants. In this project, she will collaborate with professor Claudi Bockting, ACHC researcher Barbara Schouten, and […]
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Published on April 4, 2024 – Children of refugees or migrants who receive no or poor care because professionals in youth care cannot bring in an interpreter. Investigative journalist Nina van Raay (Argos VPRO/HUMAN 24/3/2024) brings this issue painfully and clearly into focus in her TV feature “The unheard child.” […]
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Published on March 14, 2024 – Last month, the EHPS Winter School “Health Psychology in the Age of Social Media” was organized in collaboration with the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication. This two-day event was facilitated by ACHC-member Eline Smit and Thomas Gültzow (Open University of the Netherlands), who are respectively […]
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Published on March 7, 2024 – ASCoR, the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Marking this anniversary, ASCoR has released an open access book, titled “Communication Research into the Digital Society: Fundamental Insights from the Amsterdam School of Communication Research”. The book describes the major […]
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Published on February 29, 2024 – New interventions are essential to improve shared decision-making between patients with incurable cancer and their oncologists about participation in early phase clinical cancer trials. Using interviews, focus groups and think aloud sessions, we describe the systematic development of the Online Value Clarification Tool (OnVaCT) […]
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Published on February 22, 2024 – The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) is organizing a symposium on Tuesday, April 2nd 2024. This time, the topic is: “Connected Health: Research and Interventions on Social Influences on Health”, organized by Saar Mollen and Christin Scholz. You can find more detailed information in […]
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Published on February 15, 2024 – On February 8 and 9, 2024, the annual ‘Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap’ conference (‘24 hours of Communication Science’) took place – an important meeting for communication scientists from the Netherlands and Flanders. This year’s conference took place in Rotterdam and was organized by the […]
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Published on February 1, 2024 – In October and November 2023, ACHC members Sara Groos and Leonie Westerbeek went on a research visit to the University of Sydney, Australia. During their visit, they were based at the Sydney Health Literacy Lab. The Sydney Health Literacy Lab conducts research on building […]
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Published on January 25, 2024 – Together with co-authors, among those are ACHC members Julia van Weert and Barbara Schouten, Brittany Chan explored the communication strategies used by healthcare providers to address language barriers in language discordant consultations.
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Published on 18 January 2024 – Having conversations about major treatment decisions with family members of seriously ill babies, children or adults in an intensive care unit requires great communication skills from doctors. Sanne Prins investigated this topic in her dissertation “How matters: End-of-life communication with family members of critically […]
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Published on December 21, 2023 – This year, the EHPS Winter School “Health Psychology in the Age of Social Media” is organized in collaboration with the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication. This two-day event will be facilitated by ACHC-member Eline Smit and Thomas Gültzow (Open University of the Netherlands), who are […]
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Published on December 14, 2023 – The European Conference on Health Communication (ECHC) 2023 took place from 15 to 17 November in Klagenfurt, Austria. ACHC was well represented by our members.
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Published on December 7, 2023 – The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) hosted its fall symposium, “Communication for Mental Health(s): Promoting Inclusion and Diversity,” on Friday, November 24th, chaired by Barbara Schouten and Gian Hernandez. The event was a pivotal moment at the intersection of mental health and cultural […]
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Published on November 30, 2023 – This year, the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the University of Amsterdam launched a new research priority area (RPA) on Youth Digitality. ACHC-member Eline Smit serves on the board of this RPA. Recently, together with two of the other members, she recorded a […]
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Published on November 23, 2023 – The idea that the environment directs human goal-directed behavior appears to be well-accepted by most contemporary researchers and theorists from different research areas. This acceptance is based on different lines of research that consider goals of personal and social importance to be activated or […]
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Published on November 9, 2023 – Physical inactivity is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. This is particularly concerning for groups with a lower socioeconomic position (SEP), who are disproportionately affected by this health issue. Walking apps could provide a solution. However, those with a lower SEP tend to use […]
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Published on November 2, 2023 – In a new PNAS article, Hang-Yee Chan, Christin Scholz and their co-authors studied why people share news online. Brain scans from Dutch and US American participants provided physiological confirmation for prior theorizing about psychological mechanisms of sharing and robustly predicted large-scale sharing of New […]
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Published on October 26, 2023 – The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication is a comprehensive repository of topics at the forefront of the rapidly expanding field of health communication. This resource, which includes contributions from 632 authors and comprises 454 entries, offers an invaluable insight into the current state of […]
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Published on October 19, 2023 – Practitioners and academics from the Netherlands and abroad will gather at the symposium “Communication in Mental Health(care): Promoting Inclusion and Diversity” on Friday, 24 November 2023 at the University of Amsterdam. The symposium is free of charge (registration required; see below) and is an […]
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Published on October 12, 2023 – Recently, a new journal in the field of health communication has been launched: Health Literacy and Communication Open. This open-access, peer-reviewed journal by Taylor & Francis, publishes original, interdisciplinary research exploring the intersections of health, health care, and communication.
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Published on October 5, 2023 – The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) is hosting a fall symposium on Friday, Nov. 24. This time the theme is “Communication in Mental Health(Care): Promoting Inclusion and Diversity.” The symposium is led by Barbara Schouten and Gian Hernandez.
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Published on September 21, 2023 – In order to decrease fall rates among community-dwelling older adults, local healthcare professionals often organize fall prevention programs. Still, the uptake of these programs is often low. This study shows: reframing ‘aging’ and ‘fall prevention’ may help promote fall prevention programs.   In the article […]
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Published on September 14, 2023 – During 4-8 September 2023, the 37th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) took place in Bremen, Germany. The main topic of the conference was Health Psychology for all: Equity, Inclusiveness and Transformation. Several ACHC members participated at the event, contributing with […]
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Published on June 29, 2023 – The article “Leaving traces behind: Using social media digital trace data to study adolescent wellbeing” by Mubashir Sultan, Christin Scholz and Wouter van den Bos provides a framework for studying relationships between social media usage and adolescent well-being using digital trace data.The authors highlight digital […]
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Published on June 22, 2023 – The Be-Prepared consortium (Behavioural Science for Pandemic Preparedeness) organised a round table during the ARPH conference, which took place on March 30-31, in Enschede. The round table was titled „International perspectives on COVID-19 research and the role of behavioural science during a global crisis”, and […]
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Published on June 16, 2023 – The 73nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Toronto, Canada from 25 to 29 May 2023 was very successful for our group. Several ACHC members were awarded for their work. 
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Published on June 8, 2023 – On May 10th, 2023, the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) held a symposium on ‘Wearable Tech for Health’. The organization was in the hands of Anne Vos and Eline Smit.
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Published on June 1, 2023 – Sharing information online impacts what information is widely available. In a new study, researchers encouraged people to share health news more often on social media by asking them to think about how the news is relevant to themselves and others. 
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Published on May 25, 2023 – The 73nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) is an in-person conference to be held in Toronto, Canada from 25 to 29 May 2023 with “Reclaiming Authenticity in Communication” as the conference theme. Several ACHC researchers and persuasive communication colleagues will present their […]
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Published on May 11, 2023 – Clients who are well prepared before meeting with their health practitioners are better able to identify and articulate their treatment goals and options. This is one of the conclusions from a recent scientific publication on Shared Decision Making. 
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Published on April 20, 2023 – Annemiek Linn has received an NWO-SX grant to collect, bundle, and analyze knowledge on rare diseases on social media by developing an open-source algorithm. This project contributes to knowledge of rare diseases and allows individuals to understand better and manage their rare diseases.
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Published on April 13, 2023 – In recent years we have been faced with many challenges worldwide: a COVID-19 pandemic, global warming, and a global obesity pandemic, to name a few. The solution to many of these problems lies in behaviour change. The current project employs Virtual Reality to study […]
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Published on March 30, 2023 – The article “The impact of physical distancing on socially vulnerable people needing care during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands” of Daniel de Vries, Jeannette Pols, Amade M’charek and ACHC-member Julia van Weert was listed as one of the Top 5 most downloaded articles […]
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Published on March 23, 2023 – Although individually tailored eHealth programmes have shown to be effective in changing patient and citizen health behaviours, they have so far not been applied to lifestyle counselling guideline adherence in primary health care professionals beyond the STAR project. The programme developed as part of […]
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Published on March 16, 2023 – Patients’ prior realization of and experience with what information is relevant result in more in-depth information processing among older breast cancer patients, but not among younger breast cancer patients. 
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Published on February 23, 2023 – On February 2nd, at the annual conference “Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap” (“24 Hours of Communication Science”), ACHC member Dr. Monique Alblas was awarded the NeFCA dissertation award for the best dissertation defended in 2021 in the field of Communication Science in the Netherlands and […]
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Published on January 9, 2023 – Mobile health interventions are promising behavior change tools. However, there is a concern that they may benefit some populations less than others and thus widen inequalities in health. Therefore, together with researchers from Germany, the United Kingdom and Belgium, our vice-chair and secretary Eline Smit […]
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Published on January 19, 2023 – A Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) can be of great value for facilitating shared decision making in primary care. Our focus group study investigated the needs and wishes of general practitioners (GPs) for a CDSS in the context of fall prevention. The findings provide […]
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Published on January 12, 2023  – On the 7th of December, a new meeting of the ‘Be-Prepared’ consortium took place at the RIVM headquarters in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. The consortium was launched in June 2022 and focuses on in-depth research about improving pandemic preparedness from a behavioural perspective. 
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Published on December 22, 2022 – The provision of informational and emotional support for patients with cancer should be tailored. Our research namely shows that we can distinguish three different types of patients based on their motivation for using the Internet. 
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Published on December 15, 2022 – On Friday 25 November 2022, the Amsterdam Center of Health Communication (ACHC) and RISC Amsterdam organized a joint symposium “Decision aids and vulnerable groups”. Nearly 100 participants from practice and academia attended (e.g., decision aid developers, researchers, clinicians, and patient representatives). 
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Published December 8, 2022 – What does Dutch science need in the event of a future pandemic in order to provide knowledge that contributes to fighting the outbreak and preventing harm to society? An Academy advisory committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), of which ACHC […]
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Published on December 1, 2022 – Bas van den Putte and Julia van Weert have received a €250.000 ZonMw grant for a pandemic-preparedness project, in which they will test interventions aimed at preventing virus infection and spreading (e.g., SARS-CoV-2) by improving compliance with behavioral measures. 
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Published on November 17, 2022 –  Conversational agents that promote sexual health may not only be effective, but also users find them easy to use, very useful and highly satisfactory. 
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Published on November 3, 2022 – In collaboration with Patiëntenfederatie Nederland (Netherlands Patient Federation) and the Amsterdam UMC (University Medical Center), ACHC researcher Barbara Schouten has received a ZonMw grant to develop an evidence-based generic guideline to bridge language barriers between care providers and migrant patients with low language proficiency […]
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Published on October 27, 2022 – Covid-19 fake news is widely available on social media. Our study investigated the impact of a critical thinking recommendation on people’s ability to distinguish real from fake Twitter news messages. We found that participants who were exposed to the recommendations were better able to discern […]
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Published on October 19, 2022 – ASCoR postdoctoral researcher Gian Hernandez was elected Student and Early Career Researcher Representative for the International Communication Association – Health Communication Division. Dr. Gian Hernandez is researching barriers to access in mental health care among migrants and refugees, as a part of the ‘Mhealth4All […]
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Published on October 13, 2022 – Self-control is key to happy and healthy lives. Understanding psychological processes that enable self-control can inform interventions which support self-control in the context of health behaviors like healthy eating. A new ACHC publication leads us to re-consider theoretical models of self-control.
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Published on October 6, 2022 – On Friday 25 November 2022, the ACHC and RISC Amsterdam are organizing a joint symposium “Decision aids and vulnerable groups”. The symposium is in Dutch. Participation is free of charge. The full program can be found below. The number of places is limited. Register […]
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Published on September 29, 2022 – On the 21st of September, Sarah Geber (Senior Research and Teaching Associate in the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich, Switzerland) gave a guest lecture at ASCoR entitled “The potential of social norms for crisis communication – Learnings from […]
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Published on September 15, 2022 – More and more people say they avoid the news, for example, about Covid-19. But what are the implications for society? A recently published study finds that avoiding news about a crisis is not necessarily bad news for society. 
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Published on September 8, 2022 – Physicians and parents of critically ill neonates and children receiving intensive care have to make decisions on the child’s behalf. Prevailing uncertainties make these decisions extremely complex. These decisions can have severe consequences for the child, parents and family. Researchers Sanne Prins and Annemiek […]
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Published on July 7, 2022 – On the 22nd of June, the ‘Be Prepared’ consortium was launched at the RIVM headquarters in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. In the coming 3 years, the consortium will conduct in-depth research about improving pandemic preparedness from a behavioural perspective. 
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Published on June 23, 2022 – Older cancer patients search for online health information before consultations, but this information is often not adapted to their needs. A recently published study by ACHC researcher Melanie de Looper, shows positive outcomes of an online health information tool specially developed for older cancer patients. 
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Published on June 9, 2022 – During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of ACHC researchers shifted the focus of (part of) their work towards understanding and promoting health behaviour through effective communication about COVID-19  – see also here. Our vice-chair and secretary Eline Smit also devoted some of her time […]
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Published on May 26, 2022 – The upcoming 72nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) will be an in-person conference to be held in Paris from 26 to 30 May 2022 with “One world, one network?” as the conference theme. Several ACHC researchers and persuasive communication colleagues will present […]
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Published on May 19, 2022 – On Monday, May 16, the roundtable discussion on the longer term COVID-19 policy took place in the Dutch Parliament. In the presence of the Standing Committee of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS). ACHC director Julia van Weert, among others, spoke about the role of […]
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Published on May 5, 2022 – During a fast-developing crisis, like a pandemic, high quality information needs to spread quickly through society. Social media can facilitate this information diffusion. ACHC-researchers Hang-Yee Chan and Christin Scholz, together with colleagues from American universities, studied psychological mechanisms that underlie health information sharing. 
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Published on published on April 28, 2022 – COVID-19 has had many unprecedented and far-reaching consequences for human lives, economies and democracy. In the European Union, one aspect concerns transnational solidarity between member states. A group of ASCoR-researchers led by Andreas Goldberg studied the relationship between citizens’ media use and […]
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Published on April 21, 2022 – The acquisition of accurate knowledge on COVID-19 is not a given. Mis- and disinformation abound, while experts do not always agree and factual claims are disputed or updated regularly. Despite this context, recent survey research among a representative sample in the Netherlands indicates that […]
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Published on April 14, 2022 – During a pandemic outbreak, timely and accurate information that matches the information needs of the public is vital to inform the public. Earlier, we already reported that the Dutch public mainly used traditional media (e.g., news programs on tv, and newspapers) for information about […]
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Published on April 7, 2022 – The desired degree of family involvement in medical decisions is an individual preference that is largely independent from cultural stereotypes. This is concluded in a recent replication study in four European countries (Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Germany) and the United States published in Social Science & […]
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Published on March 31, 2022 – Patients’ global health status, satisfaction with the consultation with the oncologist, and timing of the decision together contribute to decisional conflict. Liza van Lent (Erasmus MC Cancer Institute), Julia van Weert (ACHC) and colleagues conclude so in a prospective survey study among 116 patients […]
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Published on March 23, 2022 – Unhealthy food choices and insufficient physical activity are more common in adults with a low socioeconomic position, leading to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The Supreme Nudge intervention tries to achieve long-term behavioral change in this target group.
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Published on March 17, 2022 – An international consortium of scientists from five countries has been awarded a grant worth EUR 1.5 million from the VolkswagenStiftung to conduct research into multilingualism in mental healthcare. ACHC member Barbara Schouten is part of the consortium. 
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Published on March 3, 2022 – Last month, a special issue on digital health and computer-tailoring was published in the European Health Psychologist, the official bulletin of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS). This special issue was guest-edited by our ACHC vice-chair and secretary Eline Smit, Laura König (University of […]
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Published on February 17, 2022 – On February 10 and 11, 2022, the annual ‘Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap’ (24 hours of communication science) took place; an important meeting for communication scientists from the Netherlands and Flanders. This year the conference was organized by the Communication Science department from the the […]
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Published on February 10, 2022 – COVID-19 disinformation is most credible and hardest to correct when there is a stronger link with factual truths. This was the main result of a recently published experimental study held under 1490 German participants. These findings suggest that disinformation may be more dangerous when […]
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Published on February 3, 2022 – Hospital report cards (HRCs), i.e., tools that aim to enable patients to make hospital choices that better match with their preferences, contain too abstract and difficult information to be used in multi-attribute decisions, likely leading to cognitive overload – especially in older patients. A […]
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Published on January 27, 2022 –The COVID-19 pandemic is having an amplifying impact on the dissemination and effects of mis- and disinformation. This is what Michael Hameleers and Rens Vliegenthart conclude in an expert vision published in a collection published by the WRR/KNAW. This report contains recommendations on how policy […]
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Published on January 20, 2022 – On 4 and 5 November 2021, ACHC researchers and colleagues from Radboud University, the University of Antwerp and the Hogeschool Utrecht organized the third European Conference on Health Communication (ECHC). The theme of this conference was “Health communication dynamics in turbulent times”.
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Published on December 18, 2021 – On November 11, we organized the third ACHC symposium of 2021 together with partner Alliance Health Skills (Alliantie Gezondheidsvaardigheden), which also served as the network meeting this alliance. The theme was “Health literacy and misinformation”. The meeting was completely online. Read a short report […]
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Published on December 14, 2021 – Dr. Annemiek Linn, ACHC member and colleague Dr. Marijn Meijers gave a mini lecture during the final of the SlimmerIQuiz. This quiz is organized by the Mensa Nederlands. 
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Published on December 3, 2021 – Last month, two of our ACHC research members, Sara Groos and Kelly de Wildt, were awarded for their research at two separate conferences. Sara Groos (PhD student) was awarded the ‘Top Student Abstract and Presentation‘ at the European Conference on Health Communication (ECHC), where […]
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Published on November 8, 2021 – How the consequences of corona policies are framed influences whether people prefer risk- seeking or risk-averse measures. More specifically, emphasizing potential gains if policy measures are installed (staying healthy, available healthcare) or potential losses of the same measures (people dying or getting long-covid, overcrowded […]
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Published on October 26, 2021 –Young people often have unhealthy lifestyles during late adolescence. In the Netherlands, many schools offer health interventions to discourage unhealthy lifestyles. However, effects of these health interventions are inconsistent. In collaboration with the Trimbos Institute, Mathijs Mesman investigated the role of interpersonal communication of students […]
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Published on October 18, 2021 – In collaboration with nine European partners, Barbara Schouten and Julia van Weert have received a grant from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) to develop an evidence-based digital platform and to evaluate the extent to which this platform improves access to mental health care […]
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Published on October 11, 2021 – Together with Jeanine Suurmond (Amsterdam UMC), and in collaboration with KU Leuven and Ghent University, Barbara Schouten and Julia van Weert have received a grant from the Dutch Research Council. The grant will be used to investigate how an online decision aid can be developed […]
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Published on 22 June 2021 – Hang-Yee Chan, Christin Scholz and their co-authors received the award for ‘Promising Early Career Paper’ at the Information System division of ICA 2021.
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Published on June 17, 2021 – Together with the University of Florida, ACHC researchers published a study in the journal Patient Education and Counseling. This study explored if and how patients and providers initiate the discussion about online health information-seeking during health consultations. Our results demonstrate that the internet is […]
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Published on June 4, 2021 – Together with Amsterdam UMC, ACHC researchers published a study in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology on May 11th, 2021.  This study identified three profiles of older patients with cancer based on their information needs. Besides the well-known “information seeker,” and “information avoider,” a third […]
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Published on May 26, 2021 – The upcoming 71st Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) will be a virtual conference to be held from 27 to 31 May 2021 with “Engaging the Essential Work of Care: Communication, Connectedness, and Social Justice” as conference theme. Several ACHC researchers will present […]
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Published on May 3, 2021 – On Thursday afternoon 10 June, 2021, the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) will organize their 11th symposium. The theme of this symposium is “Entertainment media and health” and will be led by Monique Alblas and Gert-Jan de Bruijn. The symposium will take place online […]
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Published on April 13, 2021 – Together with one of her former master students (Linwei He), ACHC-researcher Eline Smit recently published a scientific paper in the European Journal of Health Communication. Their study focused on the effects of the language features used in online medical consultations, a phenomenon which has become […]
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Published on March 31, 2021 – The way information is provided in decision aids for cancer patients, (online) tools to support patients in making an informed treatment decision, influences the effectiveness of the decision aid. New research has shown that adding animations and narrative information to these decision aids leads to […]
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Published on March 14, 2021 – Health insurance is there to protect people against the risk of high financial losses in case of illness. According to the marketing communication of certain healthcare providers though, being on health insurance is an exciting opportunity to get certain products and services for free […]
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Published on March 1, 2021 – Recently, ACHC researchers published a study in which they applied machine learning on online texts about early childhood vaccinations. Their research showed that computers can be trained to automatically determine whether online information is reliable or not.
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Published on February 15, 2021 – On February 4th and 5th  2021, the annual ‘Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap’ conference (in English: “24 hours of Communication Science”) took place. This important conference for Dutch and Flemish communication science scholars is usually held in a brisk and lively metropolitan environment (previous locations […]
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Published on February 2, 2021 – During adolescence, young people often develop unhealthy lifestyles including behaviors such as alcohol use, consumption of unhealthy snacks, and insufficient physical exercise. To discourage these unhealthy behaviors, school-based health intervention are implemented at schools. However, research shows that effects of school-based health interventions are […]
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Published on January 11, 2021 – In a consortium with various academic and practical partners, Gert-Jan de Bruijn has received a grant from the National Science Agenda (Nationale Wetenschapsagenda) within the funding round for Research on Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC). The NWO grant amounts to 9.7 million EUR and will focus […]
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Last week, the ninth ACHC symposium finally took place, entitled “Digital Health: resistance or motivation?“. Due to the Corona crisis, this symposium had to be canceled earlier this year. Last week it took place online for the same reason.
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Published on September 30, 2020 – Dr Heather Patrick will give this keynote lecture on November 17th, 2020 as part of the online Symposium “Digital Health: resistance or motivation” organized by our Amsterdam Center for Health Communication/ACHC. We cordially invite everybody who is interested to attend this online lecture.
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Published on November 11, 2020 – Ask older adults and their informal caregivers to think at home about what they themselves find important to discuss with the doctor, and explicitly invite them to bring their knowledge and experience about their personal life with diseases into the conversation with the doctor.
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Published on 29 October 2020 – Online health tools can play an important role in expanding patient participation among older cancer patients and older Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch cancer patients. Nida Gizem Yılmaz discovered that the use of audiovisual information and multi-language eHealth tools offer a promising approach. On 30 October, […]
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Published on October 7, 2020 – Blood groups differ strongly between ethnic groups. Therefore, it is important that the donor population is diverse enough to give matching blood products to everyone when necessary. However, there is a shortage of blood donors of African descent. But why?
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Published on September 25, 2020 – Graphical formats presenting health risk information can be beneficial, but are understudied in older populations. In a recent published study  with ACHC members Julia van Weert and Monique Alblas, younger (< 65) and older (> 65) adults’ preference for and understanding of graph formats […]
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Published on September 21, 2020 – Behavioral change is very important to becoming and staying healthy. In a recently published book, experts from around the world have therefore written an overview of the most important theories and most effective intervention strategies to understand and influence healthy behavior. Gert-Jan de Bruijn, […]
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Published on August 13, 2020 – Several ACHC researchers have started health communication and behavior change research on COVID-19 in the past months. Our ACHC website now has a dedicated COVID-19 section where news and publications about COVID-19 are collected. Below we summarize some of our pending projects.
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Published on June 16, 2020 –  In a recent article in the Journal of Communication, ACHC member Christin Scholz and co-authors introduce a domain general explanatory framework that integrates biological explanation with communication science. A full explanation of a communication behavior like persuasion requires three levels of investigation: computation (Why […]
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Published on May 27, 2020 – Sedentariness is a major public health concern. In a recently published study with ACHC researcher Gert-Jan de Bruijn, three different interventions were tested to reduce sedentariness in office workers in Western Canada. To date, change techniques to promote healthy behavior have been used very […]
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Published on May 22nd 2020 – Two ACHC researchers, Leonie Westerbeek and Christin Scholz, won awards at the 70th International Communication Association (ICA) conference. Leonie Westerbeek (now PhD student) was awarded the Amanda L. Kundrat Thesis of the Year Award by the Health Communication division for her master thesis “Combatting Online […]
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Published on May 20, 2020 – The upcoming 70th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) will be a virtual conference to be held from 20 to 26 May with “Open Communication” as conference theme. Several ACHC researchers will present their latest work online. We are proud to have again […]
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Published on May 13 2020 – There are many uncertainties in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, but health  communication is a key factor in fighting this crisis. An international team of health communication and behavioral scientists provides advice on how to communicate effectively and promote behavioral change and maintanance. The advice […]
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Published on April 29 2020 -The first results of a study by Fam te Poel, Annemiek Linn and other ACHC colleagues focusing on media use and information needs of the Dutch population during the Covid-19 crisis, show that mainly traditional media such as news programs on tv, and newspapers (both […]
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Published on April 14 2020 – Research has pointed towards the potential to not only tailor health interventions in the sense of what information is provided (content-tailoring), but also in terms of how information is communicated (message frame-tailoring) to increase successful behaviour change in online health interventions. Yet, effect sizes […]
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Here, we provide 10 science-based guidelines for effective communication with teens. Many of these tips can also be used by teachers, parents, and social media influencers. The Bitefile is offered to you by the Dutch Young Consumers Network, who bundled their insights from the literature and their own research on […]
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All over the world communication professionals, policy makers, and crisis teams face the challenge of informing older adults about the COVID-19 pandemic, explaining the behavioural rules recommendations (e.g. social distancing, handwashing etcetera) to help flatten the curve. Scientists together with communication experts, developed 10 evidence-based tips for effective communication with […]
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Published on March 04 2020 – Patients for whom standard anti-cancer treatment is no longer available, may be offered the choice to participate in early-phase clinical studies (experimental treatments). Liza van Lent (Erasmus MC), Julia van Weert (ASCOR) and colleagues explain in a recently published protocol paper how they will develop […]
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Published on February 25, 2020 – On January 31st, Dr. Eline Smit received the Young Talent Award from the Association for Researchers in Psychology and Health (ARPH). The ARPH Young Talent Award is an award for talented early-career researchers in the field of psychology and health, taking into account criteria as […]
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Published on February 6 2020 – Together with Ellen Smets, Marij Hillen (Amsterdam UMC), Julia van Weert and Annemiek Linn have received a grant from the Dutch Cancer Society to understand which patients use online health information, when and how they do that, and for which reasons. The consortium will also investigate how this […]
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Published on January 15, 2020 – A consortium consisting of scientists from the humanities, social sciences, and artificial intelligence has been awarded an NWO grant of EUR 750,000 to study the development and effectiveness of chatbots to promote healthy behavior. ACHC member Gert-Jan de Bruijn is involved in the consortium. […]
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Published on December 3 2019 – On Monday November 18th 2019, the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) hosted a successful symposium on “Conversational Agents for Health Communication”, chaired by Gert-Jan de Bruijn.  The main goals of these ACHC symposia are to bring academia and practice from the Netherlands and Flanders […]
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Published on December 6 2019 – Marcia Vervloet (NIVEL, ACHC) and Annemiek Linn (ACHC) received a ZonMw grant to improve therapy for inhalation medication, in terms of both technology and compliance. The grant amounts to more than 500,000 euros. Among other things, a PhD candidate will be appointed from this […]
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On Monday, November 18, 2019,  ACHC will hold it autumn 2019 symposium. The theme of this symposium is “Conversational agents in health communication” and will be led by Gert-Jan de Bruijn and Julia van Weert. The symposium is free of charge, and contains a varied program with (inter) national speakers […]
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Published on November 8th 2019 – Providing online preparatory information can support cancer patients in their communication with their provider, shows a recent study by Minh Hao Nguyen and other ACHC-researchers.Many patients with cancer, including older patients (aged ≥65 years), consult the Web to prepare for their doctor’s visit. However, […]
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Published on October 25 2019 – Most people read about scientific research in the news media, but it is unclear how they respond to such media attention, particularly if the content is relevant for themselves. An important public health problem is the lack of physical activity due to sedentariness, for […]
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Published on October 14 2019 –  at the Weekend of Science, ACHC-researcher Eline Smit and her ASCoR colleague Marijn Meijers investigated whether environmental appeals can be used to stimulate healthy food choices. Children and their parents could shop in a virtual reality supermarket (VirtuMart; developed by Nynke van der Laan […]
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Published on September 25th 2019 – On Thursday September 19, EUCAM (European Centre for Monitoring Alcohol Marketing) together with ACHC organized a conference entitled ‘Digital Alcohol Marketing in the Spotlight’. The conference took place at the department of Communication Science of the University of Amsterdam.
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Published on September 20 2019 – Shared decision making with older patients and their relatives is a challenge for healthcare professionals. In her research, Ruth Pel-Littel (Vilans), Prof. Julia van Weert (ASCOR), Prof. Bianca Buurman (Amsterdam UMC) and Prof. Glyn Elwyn (Darthmouth Institute, USA), developed a tool to measure the […]
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Published on September 12 2019 – On Thursday September 19, EUCAM (European Centre for Monitoring Alcohol Marketing) together with ACHC organize a conference entitled ‘Digital Alcohol Marketing in the Spotlight’. During this conference scientist and policy makers discuss the influence of digital alcohol marketing on drinking behavior of youth and how […]
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Published on September 3rd 2019 –  Together with colleagues from Maastricht University, ACHC-researcher Eline Smit developed and tested an e-learning program that aimed to improve practice nurses’ sub-optimal adherence to evidence-based smoking cessation treatment guidelines. Idea was that improving practice nurses’ adherence to these guidelines would benefit the quality of smoking […]
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Published on August 2nd 2019 – This week, ZonMw awarded eight research projects Exercise and Physical Activity worth over 5 million euros. ACHC researcher Gert-Jan de Bruijn will participate in Active4Life, one of the awarded projects. In the Active4Life project, Big Data analyses will be applied to investigate effective intervention […]
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Published on July 24 2019 – Young adults are bombarded with contradictory information about alcohol like anti-drinking media campaigns and conversations among peers which are generally pro-alcohol. Christin Scholz received a prestigious NWO Veni grant to research how young adults make decisions about drinking after processing conflicting information about alcohol, […]
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Published on July 17 2019 – Together with colleagues from Maastricht (a/o Dr. Ciska Hoving) and Leiden Universities (a/o Dr. Matty Crone), ACHC researcher Eline Smit has received a grant from ZonMw to identify the effective ingredients in smoking cessation interventions available in the Netherlands (€49.525). The three-month study they […]
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Published on July 1st 2019 – Bas van den Putte is involved in two projects that recently have been funded by a grant provided by Longfonds, Hartstichting, KWF, Trombosestichting and Diabetesfonds. General objective of both projects is to conduct research that contributes to policy that discourages tobacco use and stimulates the […]
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Published on June 14 2019 – At the 2019 annual conference of the International Communication Association, Persuasive Communication research received two awards. Theo Araujo and Nadine Bol, in a collaboration between the Corporate and Persuasive Communication program groups, were awarded the Jake Liang top paper award for their paper “From […]
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Published on June 1, 2019 – Earlier research showed that people are more motivated to change their behaviour particularly when they perceive autonomy. Therefore, Maria Altendorf and colleagues from the University of Amsterdam and Maastricht University tested whether the effectiveness of current online computer-tailored health interventions may be enhanced using […]
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Published on May 25th 2019 – During the D.C. Health Communication conference held on the 26th and 27th of April 2019, Lisa Klinkenberg and her coauthors, from which Julia van Weert, received the Top Paper Award for their study entitled: ‘Unknown makes Unloved: Blood donation awareness and attitudes among people of White […]
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Published on May 21 2019 –  On Tuesday April 23, 2019, the seventh ACHC symposium took place in Amsterdam, chaired by Hao Nguyen. The main purpose of symposium was to share knowledge among scholars and health specialists about the role of visuals in health communication (e.g., illustrations and videos via health websites, patient […]
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Published on May 10 2019 – On 25 April 2019, Minh Hao Nguyen obtained her doctorate at the University of Amsterdam with the designation ‘cum laude’ (with distinction). The dissertation is entitled ‘A novel approach to tailored communication: Optimizing online health information for older patients’. In recent years, the number […]
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Published on April 30 2019 – Persuasive messages are important to change people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. It is still unclear, however, if people can we consciously regulate our response to a persuasive message? In a recent study co-authored by ACHC member Christin Scholz, researchers examined this question in the context […]
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Published on April 16 2019 – Good dental health is important and can be obtained by regular tooth brushing, as well as the use of mouth rinse. One way to stimulate people to use mouth rinse is the frame the consequences of (not) using mouth rinse: does it prevent, or […]
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Published April 5th 2019 – On a daily basis we are exposed to a variety of tasty, but unhealthy foods on TV, varying from cooking shows and contests to commercials for indulging chocolate and ice cream. In a recently published study, Monique Alblas and colleagues (University of Amsterdam) found that exposure […]
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Published on 17 March 2019 – In recent years, the number and use of health websites has grown enormously. UvA PhD candidate Minh Hao Nguyen investigated how information on health websites can be improved to support older patients (65+) with cancer in their conversations with healthcare providers.
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Published on February 22 2019 – The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) organizes a symposium about Visuals in Health Communication on Tuesday 23 april a.s. titled: “Gezondheid in Beeld: De rol van visuele communicatie”. Attendance is free and the goal of this symposium is to share knowledge among scholars and health specialists working in the field.
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Published on March 8 2019 – Prof. Johannes (Hans) Brug, the current director-general of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, has been appointed as an unpaid professor  of Health Behaviour at (amongst others) the Department of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam. Brug was dean of […]
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Published on February 11th 2019 – Rena Zendedel received the award for her dissertation “Informal interpreting in Dutch general practice” from NeFCA, the Netherlands-Flanders Communication Association. The award aims to acknowledge excellent dissertations in the field of Communication Sciences and wants to recognize the quality of doctoral research in the […]
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Published on January 25th 2019 – New figures from Statistics Netherlands show that two-thirds of the Dutch population in 2018 had searched online for information about health. It also appears that Dutch people do this more often than residents of other European countries. Fam te Poel completed her PhD on this […]
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Published on January 14 2019 – On Thursday January 10, Hanneke Hendriks, in collaboration with the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, organized a Spui25 event about the unhealthy side of social media. Research has shown that posts on Facebook and Instagram about certain topics, such as pictures with laughing […]
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Published on December 14 2018 – On Friday December 7th, the sixth symposium of the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) took place in Amsterdam. This time the symposium was titled ‘Intercultural communication in healthcare: pitfalls and innovative solutions’, and chaired by Barbara Schouten. During this symposium speakers from both […]
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Published on November 30th 2018 – Treatment decision making for older patients is a complex communication process in which specialists from different disciplines are involved. Sifra Bolle investigated if patient characteristics are considered in this communication process.
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Published on November 19th 2018 – Together with colleagues from Maastricht University, ACHC-researcher Eline Smit developed and tested an e-learning program that aimed to improve practice nurses’ sub-optimal adherence to evidence-based smoking cessation treatment guidelines. Idea was that improving practice nurses’ adherence to these guidelines would benefit the quality of […]
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Published on October 29th 2018 – In her dissertation, Sifra Bolle covers two recent developments that play a role in the context of the consultation with older (cancer) patients: 1) the potential of internet usage by older patients and 2) the decision-making process about the treatment of older patients during […]
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Published on October 11th 2018 – On Friday December 7th 2018, the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) is organizing a symposium entitled “Intercultural communication in healthcare: pitfalls and innovative solutions”. The chair of the symposium is Dr. Barbara Schouten and the symposium will last from 12:30 to 18:00. Admission […]
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Published on October 22nd 2018 – Hanneke Hendriks was recently interviewed for the TV/web-program Medialogica by HUMAN, where she discussed how alcohol-related posts on social media by vloggers could impact young people. The interview was related to the Veni Project by Hanneke Hendriks, in which she investigates what young people post […]
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Published on September 27th 2018 – Gert-Jan de Bruijn has been awarded a grant from ZonMw and Diabetes Foundation within the Diabetes breakthrough programme  call. The main purpose of this call is to fund innovative research that can lead to breakthrough results for curing or preventing diabetes type II. Together […]
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Published on September 11 2018 – Cyberchondria refers to the mutual relation between searching for online health information and related fears and worries about one’s own health. Research into the role of cyberchondria is important, because nowadays consider the internet to be their primary source of health-related information, even before their […]
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Published on August 20th 2018 – Patient participation is important for an effective conversation between doctor and patient. A patient who actively participates during the conversation, generally reports the most positive outcomes. A recent study done by Sanne Schinkel and colleagues reveals that migrants with a non-Western background experience more and […]
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Published on August 6th 2018 – Hanneke Hendriks and colleagues have recently published two articles in Journal of Medical Internet Research andCyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Both articles focus on the role of alcohol-related posts on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Examples of such posts are photos […]
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Published on July 23th 2018 – The research project Supreme Nudge, which will be conducted by a large consortia consisting of several Dutch universities, companies, and organizations, is a five-year project which attempts to prevent (risk for) cardiovascular disease in adults from lower socio-economic status. How this will be achieved, […]
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Published on July 10th 2018 – With her research into the Veder Contact Method, Petra Boersma won the “Wij Inholland award” in the category Research. On 27 June she received the award and accompanying check of € 5.000, – by Huug de Deugd, chairman of the jury and member of the […]
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Published on June 15th 2018 – On Friday June 1st, the fifth symposium of the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) took place in Amsterdam. This time the symposium was titled ‘Digital (big) data and health communication: how research and practice are changing” and was chaired by Remco Sanders.
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Published on May 31st 2018 – Two ACHC researchers were awarded at the conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) 2018 in Prague.
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Published on May 28th 2018 – Everyday life is increasingly taking place online, including health-related actions. Examples of that include posting on health-related discussion fora, the use of smart devices to track our physical activity, and even sensor-enabled clothing to register bodily movements. All of those actions leave behind a […]
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Published on May 21 2018 – Hans Brug has received EUR 9.5 million from the European Commission to investigate how combat (severe) overweight among youth. In a large consortium of 14 universities and organizations from Europe, South Africa, Australia and the United States, intensive collaborations with youth will be sought […]
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Published on April 17 2018 –  The Kentucky Conference on Health Communication  (KCHC)  in Lexington was a great success for researchers from the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC). Melanie de Looper, together with Julia van Weert, Ellen Smets (AMC-UvA), Olga Damman  and Daniëlle Timmermans (both  VUmc) won two awards, […]
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Published on March 23 2018 –  Studies on anxiety within oncology show a high prevalence of anxiety both during and after the course of the disease. However, little is known about factors that influence the level of anxiety in the diagnostic phase. In this study we examined the presence of […]
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Published on March 6th 2018 – The University of Amsterdam (UvA) is ranked best in the world in the field of Communication Science and Media Studies in the 2018 QS World University Rankings by Subject. In the latest QS Rankings, which were published on Wednesday, 28 February, Communication & Media […]
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Published on February 23rd 2018 – Professor Julia van Weert will be awarded the Lewis Donohew Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award during the 2018 Kentucky Conference on Health Communication (KCHC). The award was established in Dr. Donohew’s name in 1998 to recognize outstanding research contributions to the health communication field made during […]
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Published on February 19th 2018 – On Wednesday February 14 2018, Elroy Boers defended his dissertation entitled: ‘Interpersonal communication among vocational community college students about alcohol use and binge drinking: Causality, content, and conversation partner’. The overall aim of his dissertation was to further our understanding of the effects of […]
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Published on February 09 2018 – Web-based health behavior change interventions may be more effective if they offer autonomy-supportive communication. However, currently no validated tools exist to assess user-perceived autonomy-support of such interventions. For this reason, ACHC-researcher Eline Smit and colleagues developed and validated a new measurement instrument. The Virtual Care Climate […]
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Published on January 30 2018 – Last Saturday January 27, ACHC-researcher Hanneke Hendriks was interviewed in the live radioprogram by Jort Kelder (dr Kelder en Co) on Radio1. She discussed the influence of alcohol on health and society. Hanneke currently investigates the role of alcohol-related posts on social media with […]
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Published on January 17 2018 – Nynke van der Laan received a Creative industry-KIEM grant from the NWO to develop and test a virtual reality game to foster healthy food choices. The KIEM funding instrument is intended to set up a longer-term collaboration between researchers and private partners. This is fostered […]
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Published on December 18 2017 – Nadine Bol received a travel grant of € 2,300 from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The Academy Van der Gaag Grant was designed to offer promising young researchers who are studying the biological, psychological and social determinants of human behavior […]
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Published on December 1st 2017 – On Friday November 24, the fourth symposium of the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) took place in Amsterdam, entitled ‘Tailoring for Health. From theoretical idea to practical intervention’, chaired by Eline Smit.   During the afternoon, speakers working in science and practice have […]
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Published on November 17, 2017 – Related to the symposium ‘Tailoring for Health‘ that will be held next Friday November 24, Nadine Bol, Eline Smit, and Prof. Mia Lustria will be guest-editing a special issue for the scientific open access journal ‘Digital Health’. The special issue is entitled ‘Tailored Health […]
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Published on November 7th 2017 – Informal interpreters are often used in medical settings, when patients and health care providers do not share the same language. Informal interpreters are usually family members of the patients who join the consultation to bridge the language gap. This type of interpreter-mediated communication has […]
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Published on October 19th 2017 – Intonation, acte de présence and timing are three core concepts in theater performances, but what do they have to do with dementia care? Petra Boersma studied the implementation of theatrical communication in contact with people with dementia and graduated on Friday, October 13 at the […]
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Published on September 26 2017 – On Friday November 24th 2017, The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication will organize a symposium, entitled “Tailoring for health: from theoretical idea to practical intervention”. The symposium starts at 12:00 and will end at 18:00 and attendance is free of charge. The symposium will have a […]
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Published on September 19 2017 – Minh Hao Nguyen, one of our PhD candidates, received a travel grant of € 3.000 as part of the UvA385 ‘Lustrumbeurs’. Hao was one of the 22 recipients of a UvA lustrum grant, out of 94 candidates. The UvA lustrum grant was designed to […]
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Published on August 31st 2017 – This summer, Dr. Eline Smit received the prestigious Early Career Award from the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS). The EHPS Early Career Award aims to recognize outstanding research excellence, contributions made to the EHPS and/or contributions to professional practice made by EHPS members within […]
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Published on August 8th 2017 – Nynke van der Laan is one of nine people who received a replication grant from NWO. With the call ‘Replication Studies’ NWO wishes to contribute to the transparency of research and to the quality and completeness of reporting of results. Nynke is going to […]
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Published on July 27 2017 – Current-day community pharmacies often present themselves as ‘community healthcare centres’. Communication thereby stresses that pharmacies are more than medication dispensaries alone, and offer multiple health and clinical services, such as illness prevention information, supervision of people with chronic diseases, and in many countries also […]
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Published on July 11 2017 – There are a number of established evaluation criteria that allow consumers to assess the quality and reliability of health-related websites. However, consumers do not often use these criteria. Rather, they rely on simple heuristics, such as how nice the layout of the website is […]
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Published on June 26 2017 – On Wednesday June 28th 2017, Prof. Dr. John Allegrante will give an invited lecture at the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication entitled ‘ How Many Behavioral Scientists Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?  Advancing the Science of Behavioral Self-Management of Chronic Disease’ In this […]
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Published on June 18 2017 – Private medical specialist providers often invest heavily in marketing communication. Yet very little is known about the effects of marketing communication by medical specialist providers, also internationally. The present study is one of the first to systematically investigate the effects of website marketing by […]
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Published on June 6 2017 – ACHC researchers won several awards at the conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) 2017 in San Diego. Corine Meppelink won the Abby Prestin Dissertation of the Year Award from the Health Communication divisions of the ICA and the National Communication Association (NCA) for […]
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Published on May 21 2017 – In Dutch general practice, practice nurses sub-optimally adhere to evidence-based smoking cessation treatment guidelines. Understanding the factors explaining their sub-optimal adherence is important to develop interventions that can improve their adherence and patients’ subsequent cessation success. Therefore, ACHC-researcher Eline Smit and colleagues explored the […]
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Friday, April 21, 2017 – On Tuesday, April 18, 2017, the third ACHC symposium took place in Amsterdam, chaired by Nadine Bol. The main purpose of symposium was to inform both practice and science about the opportunities and challenges of mobile health apps through presentations and interactive discussions. The symposium […]
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On Tuesday April 18th 2017,  The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication (ACHC) will organize a symposium entitled “Mobile Health: Challenges and Opportunities”. The symposium starts at 11:45 and will end at 18:00. The symposium is free of charge and will address the effectiveness of mobile health interventions, the technological challenges of mobile health […]
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Published on April 6 2017 – Evidence-based smoking cessation guidelines can help health professionals (such as practice nurses) to provide effective behavioural counseling to their smoking patients. Yet, most practice nurses suboptimally adhere to these guidelines. This limits the effectiveness of their smoking cessation support. Interventions are needed to improve […]
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Published on March 29 2017 – Cancer patients experience many concerns such as fear for the possible side-effects of their treatment. Healthcare providers do not always recognize patients’ expressions of these concerns. Together with colleagues from the Department of Communication Science, Kim Brandes shows that patients describe their concerns as […]
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