Freia De Bock

Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf | HHU · Child Health Services Research

Introduction Adverse social conditions affect children’s development and health outcomes from preconception throughout their life course. Early identification of adverse conditions is essential for early support of children and their families. Healthcare contacts with children provide a unique opportunity to screen for adverse social conditions and...

Background Early childhood self-regulation (SR) is key for many health- and education-related outcomes across the life span. Kindergarten age is a crucial period for SR development, and within this developmental window, potential SR difficulties can still be compensated for (e.g., through interventions). However, efficient measurement of SR through...

Hintergrund und Stand der Forschung: Jodmangel ist ein Risikofaktor für die Entstehung von Schilddrüsenerkrankungen. Hierbei sind Frauen insgesamt deutlich häufiger von Schilddrüsenerkrankungen und um ein Vielfaches häufiger von Folgeerkrankungen betroffen wie Männer. Dabei ist besonders zu beachten, dass Jodmangel in den ersten Monaten der Schwang...

Children's overweight is strongly associated with family socioeconomic position (SEP) and family characteristics (FC). There is limited research on the extent to which FC account for a socioeconomic gradient in childhood overweight. This study examined whether FC explain SEP differences in the prevalence of overweight. The study used baseline data...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on nearly all people. Vaccines provide an effective tool to combat the pandemic, however, vaccination hesitancy remains an issue. This study aims to investigate (a) students' attitudes toward the pandemic, (b) potential differences in attitudes between university students and the general population...

Introduction: Participation is an important dimension of healthy child development and is associated with higher self-rated health, educational attainment and civic engagement. Many children with special healthcare needs (SHCN) experience limited participation and are thus at risk for adverse health and developmental outcomes. Despite this, interv...

Background Children's overweight is associated with many factors, including their living situation, in particular their family's socioeconomic position (SEP) and family characteristics. Research on the extent to which family characteristics account for a social gradient in overweight in early life is scarce. This study evaluated whether family char...

Participation is one key element of inclusive education. While the inclusion rate in German schools is rising, little is known with regard to children’s participation in this context. This study examines the participation of children with and without impairments at three inclusive primary schools in Bavaria. Cross-sectional data was collected in pa...

Background: The number of obese children is rising worldwide. Many studies have investigated single determinants of children's body mass index (BMI), yet studies measuring determinants at different potential levels of influence are sparse. The aim of this study is to investigate the independent role of parental socioeconomic position (SEP), additi...

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Bisher fehlt es hierzulande an Erkenntnissen zur Einstellung zur Grippeimpfung in der Grippesaison 2021/2022. Basierend auf der COSMO-Befragung („COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring“) ist es daher das Ziel dieser Studie, die Einstellung zur Grippeimpfung näher zu beleuchten. Methodik Welle 49 (10. und 11. August 2021) der C...

Dieses Kapitel gibt einen Überblick über die gesundheitsökonomische Relevanz von Adipositas im Kindes- und Jugendalter. Internationale Krankheitskostenstudien zeigen, dass juvenile Adipositas zu erheblichen zusätzlichen Kosten im Erwachsenenalter führt, was die Notwendigkeit unterstreicht, möglichst frühzeitig zu intervenieren. Die Studienergebniss...

Background: Mandating vaccination against COVID-19 is often discussed as a means to counter low vaccine uptake. Beyond the potential legal, ethical, and psychological concerns, a successful implementation also needs to consider citizens’ support for such a policy. Public attitudes toward vaccination mandates and their determinants might differ over...

Our aim was to investigate to what extent physician visits were replaced by telemedicine services because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the satisfaction with such telemedicine services. Cross-sectional data from the “COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany” (COSMO, wave 49 from 11 to 12 August 2021 with n = 967). The average age was 44.9 years (SD:...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Eltern stehen während der COVID-19-Pandemie vor einer Vielzahl persönlicher Herausforderungen, während sie gleichzeitig mit schulbezogenen Maßnahmen zur Pandemieeindämmung konfrontiert werden. Zielsetzung Dieser Beitrag fokussiert auf die Belastung von Eltern mit Kindern im Schulalter über verschiedene Phasen der COVID...

Zusammenfassung Sind Kinder und Jugendliche relevante Vektoren für die Übertragung von SARS-CoV-2? Und welche Rolle spielt es, wenn sie eine Schule oder Kindertagesstätte besuchen? Diese Fragen konnten zu Beginn der Pandemie nur unzureichend beantwortet werden. So wurden weltweit Schulen und Kinderbetreuungseinrichtungen geschlossen, um die Verbrei...

Introduction Our aim was to examine attitudes of the general population towards reasonableness of these costs, as well as the degree to which these costs are shared across society (solidarity financing) and to determine the factors associated with them. Method Repeated cross-sectional data from a nationally representative online-survey. More preci...

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, public perceptions and behaviours have had to adapt rapidly to new risk scenarios and radical behavioural restrictions. Aim To identify major drivers of acceptance of protective behaviours during the 4-week transition from virtually no COVID-19 cases to the nationwide lockdown in Germany (3–25 March 2020)....

We describe why Germany needs a Public Health strategy and a strong Health in all Policies approach and suggest corner stones of what such a strategy might look like. The long version of the corner stones is available from the Zukunftsforum Public Health: https://zukunftsforum-public-health.de/public-health-strategie/

Background Wearing face masks in public is recommended under certain circumstances in order to prevent infectious diseases transmitted through droplets.AimThe objective was to compile all German and English research results from peer-reviewed journal articles using a sensitive literature search on the effects of mask-wearing for preventing infectio...

Objective To conduct a preliminary evaluation of psychometric properties of CollaboRATEpediatric, a set of three scales to assess shared decision making (SDM) with pediatric patients, parents and parents on behalf of their children (parent-proxy reports). As secondary objectives we examined the scales’ distributional characteristics, acceptability,...

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the willingness of the general population in Germany to bear the economic costs of measures against the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Methods: Repeated cross-sectional data were taken from three waves of a nationally representative survey of individuals aged 18 to 74 years (wave 8: 21–22 April 2020, N = 976;...

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic mobile health applications indicating risks emerging from close contacts to infected persons have a large potential to interrupt transmission chains by automating contact tracing. Since its dispatch in Germany in June 2020 the Corona Warn App has been downloaded on 25.7 Mio smartphones by February 2021. To understand...

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by various challenges for individual health and the health care system. However, preventive examinations such as cancer screenings should not be postponed during a pandemic. Because nationally representative studies describing postponed cancer screenings and identifying its determinants in Germany are...

The main strategy for combatting SARS-CoV-2 infections in 2020 consisted of behavioural regulations including contact reduction, maintaining distance, hand hygiene, and mask wearing. COVID-19-related risk perception and knowledge may influence protective behaviour, and education could be an important determinant. The current study investigated diff...

Nicht nur in der aktuellen Pandemie sind Akzeptanz und Inanspruchnahme von Impfangeboten eine Grundvoraussetzung für den bevölkerungsweiten Infektionsschutz (1, 2). Laufende Studien zeigen, dass ein wesentlicher, aber je nach Studie und Zeitpunkt variierender Teil der Bevölkerung bereit ist, sich gegen SARS-CoV-2 impfen zu lassen (3, 4). Dieser Bei...

Objectives The COVID-19 pandemic has serious social, economic and health consequences. Particularly in these times, it is important to maintain individual health. Therefore, it is important to take part in routine health checkups. Consequently, our objective was to describe the frequency and to identify the determinants of postponed routine health...

Evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention require incorporating evidence of the effectiveness of interventions into policy and practice. With the entry into force of the German Act to Strengthen Health Promotion and Prevention (PrävG), interventions that take place in people's everyday living environments have gained in importance. Dec...

Zusammenfassung Für die Umsetzung des Präventionsgesetzes in einem sich entwickelnden System Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung (PGF) ist die Anforderung der Evidenzbasierung formuliert. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich die Frage, welche Schritte, Prozesse und Vorgehensweisen in diesem System benötigt werden, um der Anforderung zunehmend gerecht...

Zusammenfassung Kommunale AkteurInnen erfahren bei der Entwicklung und Auswahl von Maßnahmen der Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung (MPG) keine ausreichende wissenschaftliche Unterstützung. Interventionsdatenbanken können Abhilfe leisten, indem sie wissenschaftlich abgesicherte und gut dokumentierte MPG präsentieren. Dadurch kann wissenschaftliche...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse können eine Wissensquelle für kommunale Akteurinnen und Akteure der Bewegungsförderung sein, finden jedoch aufgrund von vielfältigen Barrieren selten Anwendung. Wissenstranslation kann diesen Prozess vereinfachen, setzt aber das Erfassen der bisher kaum erforschten Bedürfnisse der Akteurinne...

Zusammenfassung Evidenzbasierung stellt auch im öffentlichen Gesundheitswesen eine zentrale Anforderung dar. 5 allgemeine Prinzipien gelten in der evidenzbasierten Medizin wie in der evidenzbasierten Public Health (EBPH). Sie umfassen Systematik, Transparenz im Umgang mit Unsicherheit, Integration und Partizipation, Umgang mit Interessenkonflikten...

Objectives: To decrease the rapid growth of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany, a stepped lockdown was conducted. Acceptance and compliance regarding entering and exiting lockdown measures are key for their success. The aim of the present study was to analyse the population's preferences for exiting lockdown measures. Methods: To evaluate population’s preferenc...

With the declaration of a pandemic situation of national significance by the German Bundestag, the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) is fulfilling its task of providing information for understanding the pandemic situation and implementing the necessary protective measures in a clear manner throughout Germany within the framework of the ada...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund In der Coronaviruspandemie nehmen 2 Institutionen eine zentrale Rolle in der evidenzbasierten Einordnung des Geschehens für Politik und Bevölkerung ein. Das Robert Koch-Institut (RKI) koordiniert die Pandemiebekämpfung, erstellt fundierte Empfehlungen für medizinisches Fachpersonal, die Medien sowie die Bevölkerung und...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Auswirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie auf die psychische Gesundheit zeigten sich bereits früh. Das Ausmaß der Auswirkungen, insbesondere kumulativ über die lang anhaltende Zeit der Pandemie, ist für Deutschland noch nicht umfassend untersucht worden. Ziel der Arbeit Ziel der Studie war es, psychische Belastungen sowie COV...

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the resulting outbreak response measures in Germany and worldwide led to severe limitations in everyday life. This affected all sorts of daily activities and the possibility for physical activity (PA), which represents a major coping strategy against stress. The objective of this study was to analyse PA in Germa...

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by various societal and economic challenges. Furthermore, it is associated with major health challenges. Oral health is a key component of health. Therefore, both curative and preventive dental visits are important during pandemics. Since there is a lack of nationally representative studies focus...

Kinder und Jugendliche sind von der COVID-19-Pandemie und den behördlichen Eindämmungsmaßnahmen besonders betroffen. Die Auswirkungen auf ihre psychische Gesundheit wurde bislang wenig untersucht. Ziel dieses narrativen Reviews ist es, bisher vorliegende Erkenntnisse zur psychischen Gesundheit von Kindern und Jugendlichen in den ersten Wochen der C...

This paper examined the determinants of perceived access to health care use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany using data from two waves (8 and 16) of the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO). Descriptive and regression analysis were used. In wave 8, we found that about 60% of the individuals rather disagreed about having had problems accessin...

Children and adolescents are particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the official containment measures. However, the effects on their mental health have been little studied. The aim of this narrative review is to summarize existing evidence on the mental health of children and adolescents in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic and d...

Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung sind gemäß der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) als zwei von zehn Kernfunktionen von Public Health definiert.1 Dieses Memoran-dum erarbeitet Kriterien und Operationalisierungen von evidenzbasierter Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung und möchte einen Standard für das Verständnis und die Umset-zung von Evidenzbas...

Objective . To develop parsimonious German scales (CollaboRATEpediatric) to assess shared decision making (SDM) with patients aged 7-18 years, parents and parents on behalf of their children (parent-proxy reports), and to establish comprehensibility and preliminary face validity. Methods . Based on an existing SDM scale for adults (CollaboRATE) we...

The good practice portal of the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) consists of a nationwide collection of projects and interventions to promote the health of socially disadvantaged groups at community/setting level. An exchange platform (inforo) is also offered via the operating agency, although its use is still limited. The results of the...

Issue In EU countries, almost 20% of the population is aged 65 or older. This longer life expectancy offers many opportunities but health risks as well. Health promotion measures like physical activity are of central importance but only a small proportion of the elderly meets the minimum level of physical activity recommended by the WHO. The projec...

The role of children in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic remains unclear. It has been inferred from other viral epidemics that children may play a driving role in the transmission chain. However, the epidemiological record has challenged this assumption as children only rarely have been identifed as active infectors. At the same time the SARS-CoV-2...

Abstract Background Assessing the early development of children at a population level in educational settings, may be useful for public health and policy decision making. In this study, we evaluated the psychometric properties and the contextual appropriateness of a German language version of the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a survey-based i...

In 1986, the Ottawa charter marked a paradigm shift for public health, putting the focus on strengthening community action and on creating supportive environments for health. A key to this is "capacity building" (CB), which we understand as the development and sustainable implementation of structural capacities, e.g. coordinated data collection, co...

Background Organizational readiness for implementing change (ORIC) is presumed key for successful change in healthcare settings. At the same time, ORIC is theorized to depend on cultural and other factors of the organizational context. Within the process evaluation of the PART-CHILD intervention in interdisciplinary pediatric outpatient centres (IP...

The public health system in Germany, similar to education and cultural affairs, is characterised by the federal structure. It is mainly regulated and decided at the state and municipal level, and not primarily at the national level. The preventive health care act (The Act to Strengthen Health Promotion and Preventive Health Care) (2015) underlines...

Background Child and parent centeredness (CPC) are important determinants of the quality of care for children with chronic health conditions. However, little is known about the perceptions of healthcare professionals on the importance and feasibility of implementing CPC in routine care, although both might be key for the successful implementation o...

Background: Although there is a growing number of early childhood obesity prevention programs, only a few of them are effective in the long run. Even fewer reports exist on lifetime cost-effectiveness of early prevention strategies. This paper aimed to assess the lifetime cost-effectiveness of infant feeding modification aiming at reducing risk of...

Background While ICF-CY-based models of care are promising avenues for improving participation of children with chronic health conditions, feasible and valid instruments to assess participation as an outcome in routine are still needed. We aimed to validate a German parent-report version of the Child and Adolescent Scale of Participation (CASP) in...

Lay Summary: In industrialized societies some babies develop flattening of the back part of their head. It is thought that this comes from sleeping supine, which has been shown to be the safest option for babies. However, this explanation cannot be correct from an evolutionary standpoint: why should safe sleep come at the cost of a misshaped head?...

Objective: To investigate associations between preschoolers' objective leisure-time sedentary behavior and a comprehensive set of subjective and objective potential correlates of sedentary behavior across the behavioral, social, and physical environmental domains on both the family and community level. Study design: In 3- to 6-year-old preschool...

Background Overweight and low levels of physical activity (PA) in preschoolers are major public health concerns. However, to date only few studies have investigated subjective and objective correlates of PA across different socioecological domains in preschoolers. We therefore simultaneously investigate associations between preschoolers’ objectivel...

Background This conceptual paper aims to illustrate the ways in which communities are able to advance health improvements on a population level. Outcome measures may include increased physical activity and healthier eating habits in particular, as well as an improved health-related quality of life and social cohesion as more generic outcomes. Main...

Background: General movements (GM) are used in academic settings to predict developmental outcome in infants born preterm. However, little is known about the implementation and predictive value of GM in non-academic settings. Aims: The aim of this study is twofold: To document the implementation of GM assessment (GMA) in a non-academic setting a...

Background Deformational plagiocephaly (DP) is one of the most prevalent abnormal findings in infants and a frequent reason for parents to seek paediatric advice. Objective To systematically review the literature and identify evidence and hypotheses on the aetiology and determinants of DP in otherwise healthy infants. Design Systematic keyword se...

Background: In children, autonomic nervous function is related to various highly prevalent health problems and might therefore represent an early indicator of ill health. Aims: We aimed to investigate the role of early-life exposures and physical activity (PA) as potential determinants of autonomic function at preschool age. Study design and su...

Zusammenfassung Angesichts des sich wandelnden Krankheitsspektrums in der Pädiatrie ist eine gut organisierte pädiatrische Versorgungsforschung notwendig. Wir stellen in diesem Artikel aus entwicklungspädiatrischer Sicht ausschlaggebende, neue Endpunkte der pädiatrischen Versorgungsforschung vor, nämlich Partizipation (= soziale Teilhabe) und Bildu...

Background/Purpose: After publication of the ICF-CY (WHO 2007) there has been an international discussion about the participation of children, its definition, delineation and operationalization in outcome measures in recent years. The ICF-CY is a multidimensional classification system of disease that - in enlargement of the standard diagnostic tool...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund: Übergewicht und Adipositas sind bei deutschen Jugendlichen weiterhin hochprävalent. Die gesellschaftlichen Langzeitkosten sind jedoch weitestgehend unbekannt. Methode: Wir schätzen auf Basis alters- und geschlechtsspezifischer Markov-Modelle erstmals für Deutschland die zukünftigen direkten und indirekten Kosten von heu...

Background Knowledge of the factors affecting the development of preterm children in Germany is limited. We analysed the prevalence of preterm birth in Germany using the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents 2003–2006 and assessed factors associated with quality of life (QOL) and behavioural development in pret...