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Knowledge Centre Overweight

Also visit the official Knowledge Centre Overweight site.

Objectives

The Knowledge Centre for Overweight and Obesity was established in 2002 with subsidies from the Ministry of Health Welfare and Sports to enhance knowledge about the aetiology, prevention, treatment options and consequences of overweight and obesity. The Centre has extensive expertise and know-how. 

Its goal is to provide professionals with access to this knowledge and to encourage research. In addition to being a centre for collecting information, the Knowledge Centre is also a place where prevention officers and care providers can find answers to their questions, as well as being an information desk for enquiries and information from, for example, the media. The Knowledge Centre for Overweight and Obesity also supports the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports.

KCO has a well-visited website: www.overgewicht.org with more than 6000 hits a month and visitors from different countries.

Collaborations

Different disciplines within EMGO, the VUmc’s Department of Paediatrics, and the Department of Food and Health of the VU University Faculty of Earth and Life Science participate in the KCO.
The KCO has a Platform. It consists of specialists from 18 organizations in the area of obesity in the broadest sense. It meets several times a year with a view to:
  • informing one another about new developments and projects;
  • coordinating activities;
  • furthering collaboration;
  • upon request, providing recommendations about activities, research and interventions in the field of obesity and overweight.
The main aim is to achieve optimal coordination between all organisations.
Moreover the KCO collaborates with the Covenant on Overweight (CO) and the Partnership Overweight Netherlands (PON). The CO is a public-private partnership, with 20 partners from the (local) government, private sector and other organisations (like the federations of employers and employees and the Dutch Consumers Bond). The PON aims at facilitating the development and implementation of a chronic disease management model for overweight and obesity.

In addition the KCO collaborates with the Research Center Prevention of Overweight Zwolle. The aim of OPOZ is to develop scientific knowledge to stimulate a healthy lifestyle and to prevent overweight in children at the age of 0-19 years. Hereby OPOZ proceeds from an integral approach. Therefore OPOZ collaborates with various organisations in the field of care, welfare, education and sports, insurers and with partners that can stimulate a healthy lifestyle in the social or physical environment in the area of Zwolle.

Results

Monitor Overweight

In collaboration with TNO Quality of Life, KCO carried out a Monitor Overweight to  obtain more recent prevalence rates of overweight and obesity in Dutch children than the fourth national Dutch Growth Study of 1997.  The KCO is in collaboration with TNO Quality of Life, LUMC and VUmc also involved in the fifth national Dutch Growth Study that has started in 2008.

Protocol to detect overweight in children
In 2004, at the request of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, the KCO developed a protocol to detect overweight in children and adolescents within the youth healthcare system that was distributed nationally in 2005.  The KCO also provides postgraduate education on this topic. In 2007, the protocol to detect overweight was downloaded more than 4150 times.
Transitional plan for the prevention of overweight in children
In addition - again at the request of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports the KCO has developed a transitional plan with advice and tools that can be used after a child with overweight is detected according to the protocol within the youth healthcare system. Various public health services have started to implement this plan. It is also recommended by Actiz and GGD-Nederland , the umbrella organisations of child healthcare organisations, and has received much attention in the media.   In collaboration with the Erasmus University medical Center the KCO is involved in a study that determines the effectiveness of the protocol to detect overweight in children and the transitional plan. In 2007, the transitional plan for the prevention of overweight in children was downloaded more than 4350 times.

In addition to the transitional plan a practical manual for parents is written to support them to implement the advices of the transitional plan into the home environment and in daily life. This book can be downloaded for free from the website of the KCO (www.overgewicht.org) to increase its reach, also in the risk group of parents and children with a low social economic status. The manual has been downloaded more than 13.000 times.

Web application for general practitioners

Moreover in collaboration with TNO and the Dutch College of General Practitioners the KCO has developed a tool in form of a web application for general practitioners to deal with children with overweight or obesity. This tool consist of an easy way to define children with overweight or obesity and advices for treatment and follow-up. The advices for children with overweight are based on the transitional plan, those for obesity on the guideline obesity of the Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement (CBO). http://www.cbo.nl/product/richtlijnen/folder20021023121843/rl_obesitas_07.pdf?

Expert meeting on youth healthcare and overweight

Within Youth Health Care KCO has organised two expert meetings in 2004 and 2005, followed by a multidisciplinary congress on overweight and obesity in children in 2006. The congress was organised by the KCO in collaboration with Elsevier, the Dutch Youth Healthcare Organisation, the Dutch College of General Practitioners, and the Dutch Organisation of Paediatricians to exchange expertise. The aim of the expert meetings and congress was to discuss existing initiatives and projects, and stimulate collaboration.  Another aim of the congress was to strengthen the collaboration with the health-promoting organisations in the field of overweight such as the Dutch Food Centre, the Dutch Organisation of Sports and Physical Activity, and the Dutch Organisation of the Promotion of Health and Prevention of Disease. This has resulted in collaborations in various projects (e.g. the manual on prevention of overweight in local health policy). The projects are presented on the KCO website (www.overgewicht.org).

Guideline Overweight within Youth Health Care

KCO is involved in a project to develop a guideline overweight applicable within Youth Health care

Registration of type 2 diabetes in children

Another activity of the KCO, in collaboration with the VUmc’s Department of Paediatrics and the Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit, is the registration of all children and adolescents diagnosed by paediatricians with type 2 diabetes.. The national registration system made it possible to gain more insight into the incidence and characteristics of children and adolescents with type 2 diabetes. Although the registration has stopped for lack of finances, the results are reported in an international publication. The study showed a discrepancy between the number of patients with type 2 diabetes diagnosed by pediatricians in daily practice and diagnosed according to the ADA criteria.  Moreover, a considerable amount of reported patients were misclassified. Finally, 2.4%  of the reported patients were classified as (very likely) type 2 diabetes, This is a minimal number.

Multidisciplinary guideline for the treatment of obesity

Members of the KCO were participating in a workgroup to develop multidisciplinary guidelines for the treatment of obesity in children and adults. The guidelines are  finished and officially presented in November 2008.

General practitioners and dieticians

The KCO is involved in a study to determine daily practices among dieticians regarding treatment of obesity and overweight. Plans are also being made to involve general practitioners more in the generation, linking, and passing of knowledge in the field of prevention and treatment of overweight and obese persons.

Partnership Overweight

Members of the KCO are involved in the Partnership Overweight Netherlands. The Partnership Overweight Netherlands (PON), aims at facilitating the development and implementation of a chronic disease management model for overweight and obesity. The partners of the PON are 17 national organizations of health care providers, health insurance companies and patient organisations.

KCO website

The KCO has developed a website, that is renewed and extended (www.overgewicht.org).. As the website targets professionals, but also a lot of parents and students appear to visit the website an overview of relevant websites is made for this target group. Moreover there is also an (partly) English version of the website.  The number of visitors to the website has increased from 6.000 in 2003 to more than 72.000 in 2008.

Media

The KCO is asked for contribution of expertise, opinion, information, interviews from media regularly

Publications/Projects

KCO has contributed to many international and national publications and is involved in various projects such as developing a guideline to deal with children with overweight within Youth Health Care,  studying the effectiveness of the protocol to detect overweight and the transitional plan for the prevention of overweight and the Terneuzen Birth cohort study in which the association between birth weight, growing pattern and the development of overweight and its complications is studied.

Contact information

C.M. Renders, PhD (project manager KCO)
Tel: +31-20-4441712
e-mail: kco.emgo@vumc.nl