Lifelines research projects

Municipal Purchasing Strategies in Youth Mental Healthcare: Evaluating Cost-Effectiveness and Outcomes of Care Trajectories for Children with Complex Mental Problems (MUNI-CARE)

Dutch municipalities are responsible for financing and organizing youth care. This can lead to variation in content and accessibility of youth care, as well as differences in purchasing policies between municipalities. In this research project, we seek to uncover how purchasing of mental healthcare by municipalities influences cost-effectiveness of care trajectories for children with complex mental problems by identifying and exploring different groups of children with complex mental problems per municipality. Furthermore, we seek to uncover how healthcare purchasing and other aspects of the organization of youth care by municipalities influence the behavioural and mental health outcomes of children.

Researchers: Aline Seepma, Caitlin Kiernan, Gerdien Regts, Hermien Dijk, Raun van Ooijen

Vulnerability, Public Policy and Health Outcomes

We ask how environmental, social and economic conditions of a population affect health outcomes. This will be done first in a descriptive way in order to find important factors and correlations. Next, we specifically focus on policy interventions. A potential research question that we seek to explore: has the designation of some Groningen and Leeuwarden areas as “Vogelaarwijk” had an effect on the health, as compared to the areas that were not singled out in governmental policies? And perhaps more importantly, in which ways, and which aspects of the improved environment were most significant for these health benefits?

Researchers:  Stefan Pichler, Oskar Roemeling, Mariana Soares, Martijn van der Steen, Laura Viluma 

The Impact of Technological Innovation on Employee Well-being

As small and medium enterprises (SMEs) increasingly adopt advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and automation, the implications for employee well-being warrant close examination. In this project, we investigate how workplace innovation influences mental and physical health outcomes, including stress, anxiety, life satisfaction, and physical indicators like heart rate and blood pressure. Understanding these effects and their dynamics is crucial for shaping policies and strategies that promote both innovation and employee health. The project adopts a multidisciplinary approach, integrating expertise from the fields of health, innovation, and digitalization to determine how workplace innovation by means of adoption of advanced technologies by SMEs across different sectors affects employee well-being.

Researchers: Jana Holthöwer, Thijs Broekhuizen, and Maarten Gijsenberg

Early Childhood Conditions and Later Outcomes

Our interdisciplinary research investigates whether (harsh/adverse) childhood experiences and conditions (i.e., physical, emotional, sexual abuse and/or neglect) can affect health and well-being in later years. We look into outcome measures, namely: (1) alcohol, drug, substance, smoking and tobacco use; (2) electronic device, Internet, night time screen use; (3) eating behaviour and food choice; (4) sleep, physical activity and sedentary behaviour; (5) mental illness, loneliness, depression and anxiety, and life satisfaction. We also look at whether individuals, according to their childhood conditions, would behave differently when faced with stressful conditions (e.g., work, family, finance, health, COVID-19).

Researchers: Bob Fennis, Sarah Grace See

The Labour Market and Health Effects of a Diabetes Warning: Evidence of Sex and Age Differences from the Lifelines Cohort Study

Diabetes screenings inform participants about their diabetes risk. However, it is unknown how such information affects health outcomes by sex and whether health changes caused by screening reflect on employment outcomes. Using a multidimensional regression discontinuity design, we investigate the short- and long-term labour market and health effects of a diabetes risk warning issued by Lifelines, a Dutch cohort study that collected blood samples from more than 160,000 participants.

Warned women show higher employment levels in the short run while men experience lower long-term disability insurance take-up. Providing the first results for individuals under 40, both women and men benefit from a warning. Women experience a large employment gain and men work more hours in the short run. Furthermore, we find evidence of a socioeconomic gradient as college-educated women display lower mortality rates and similarly educated men are more likely to be employed in the short run and less likely to be on disability insurance in the long run.

Researchers: Claudio Annibali, Annette Bergemann, Rob Alessie.