Dr. Eva Corpeleijn

As Associate Professor, dr ir Eva Corpeleijn leadsthe research unit ‘Lifestyle Medicine in Obesity and Diabetes’ at the Department of Epidemiology, UMCG. Her mission is to discover how a healthy diet can impact the onset, treatment, remission and comorbidities in chronic diseases.

Lifestyle medicine is a growing discipline in healthcare. Lifestyle medicine is about empowering patients to positively influence their own health and ensure more healthy years. As lifestyle is a multi-organ target, diet has great potential to impact the onset, treatment, remission and comorbidities in chronic diseases. Nutrition can make a difference, but knowledge about the influence of nutrition on our health falls short for specific (vulnerable) population groups, especially in people with a chronic illness and obesity, children and elderly.

Projects:

The role of lifestyle in multimorbidity.
Multimorbidity is associated with poor quality of life, polypharmacy, high health care costs and early mortality, with those affected potentially benefitting from a healthy lifestyle. In this project we study a comprehensive set of lifestyle factors in relation to multimorbidity, frailty, resilience and mortality.
Lifestyle factors related to prevalent chronic disease multimorbidity: A population-based cross-sectional study.

A sustainable and health diet: good for people and planet.
The 21st century is facing great interlinked global threats concerning health and sustainability. In this project, we develop a diet score that reflects health for both people and planet. The healthfulness and sustainability of diets are explored in the Lifelines database and will expand into studying vulnerable groups and people with a chronic illness. From a care-point of view, a central question to be addressed is "For whom does a shift to plant-based food intake provide health benefits and for whom does it involve a health risk?”.

The role of sugars in health: do type and source of sugars matter?
It is already known that the intake of sugar sweetened beverages can contribute to obesity and its cardiometabolic complications, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and early mortality. In this study we assess the role of different types of sugars from different food sources in vulnerable populations, including children and pepople with a chronic illness.

Diet Scores in the Lifelines cohort
The Lifelines Diet score (LLDS) is based on the latest international evidence for diet-disease relations at the food group level and has high capacity to discriminate between people with widely different intakes. Together with the population-based quintile approach, this makes the LLDS a flexible, widely applicable tool for diet quality assessment.

The Ultra-processed Food score is based on the NOVA 4 classification and reflects the use of processed foods, that are often high is energy, sugar, salt and saturated fat.

Dutch Sustainable Diet Score is UNDER DEVELOPMENT, in a workgroup with national partners at Wageningen University, ErasmusMC, RIVM, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Voedingscentrum and HAS Green Academy.

ACT for the future
The ‘Active Care After Transplantation’ study is a randomized controlled trial in kidney transplant reciepients. By offering a rehabilitation program with or without additional dietary counselling, we aim to improve the physical function and quality of life of these patients, as well as reduce their long-term cardiometabolic risk. Collaboration with nephrology, UMCG (prof. Stephan Bakker, prof. Gerjan Navis).

The GECKO Drenthe cohort
The Groningen Expert Centre for Kids with Obesity (GECKO) started research into the development of overweight in children in 2005. The aim of the GECKO Drenthe birth cohort is to study the early determinants of childhood obesity. What factors contribute to the development of childhood obesity? What is the role of the parents for this development? What is role of genes and early programming on child health and growth? How do physical activity and nutrition contribute to the development of obesity? These questions are essential for the prevention of (childhood) obesity.

Master projects
Are you a student looking for a Master project? Then you can contact me to work on one of the projects mentioned above, or search for projects under ‘Corpeleijn’ at the JSM webpage.

Nutrition courses
Nutrition Research in Health and Disease

Linked-in page

Link to PhD thesis ‘Fatty acid metabolism, impaired glucose tolerance and the effects of lifestyle’