Towards a healthy future for children: Sarphati Amsterdam

Sep 21

The Sarphati Amsterdam Research Institute collaborates with partners including the University of Amsterdam to research and prevent non-communicable childhood diseases, aiming to improve children's well-being.

Sarphati Amsterdam is a unique scientific research institute dedicated to studying and preventing non-communicable diseases among children in Amsterdam. With a focus on promoting healthy living conditions and addressing factors such as sleeping habits, nutrition, physical activity, and stress, Sarphati Amsterdam collaborates with various stakeholders, including the University of Amsterdam, to create a meaningful impact on children's well-being. This week we talked with Dr. Loes van Rijn van Gelderen, Research Coordinator of Sarphati Amsterdam, to learn more about the institute’s mission and projects.

Sarphati Amsterdam, a city-wide multidisciplinary collaboration

Sarphati Amsterdam is named after Samuel Sarphati, a Dutch physician who significantly contributed to the progress of public health, education, urban development, and industry in 19th-century Amsterdam. By facilitating connections between multiple stakeholders in the Amsterdam municipality and the city's educational and knowledge institutions, Sarphati Amsterdam establishes a meaningful and enduring nexus between research, practical application, and policy.

Sarphati comprises prominent educational institutions in Amsterdam, including Amsterdam UMC, Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA), University of Amsterdam (UvA), and Vrije Universiteit (VU), in addition to the Public Health Service of Amsterdam (GGD). Together, these actors collaborate and leverage their expertise to effectively prevent diseases associated with overweight and obesity, known as diseases of affluence.

An exceptional resource: The Sarphati Cohort

Dr. Loes van Rijn provides further insights: “What is great and unique about Sarphati is the Sarphati Cohort: a dynamic cohort of over 9,000 children in Amsterdam (number for July 2023), which provides the data on which our research is based. Most of them are aged 1-12 but can be followed until they are 18 years old. Thanks to agreements with parents and partnerships with Youth Health Care (Jeugdgezondheidszorg, JGZ), Sarphati Amsterdam collects anonymous health data, enabling researchers to gain a comprehensive understanding of children's health. We can therefore carry out a population-wide study. The cohort continues to grow each year, strengthening the institute's ability to generate meaningful information and contribute to the well-being of Amsterdam's youth.”

How can parents and children participate in such a cohort?

“During pregnancy, parents typically visit a midwife, and after childbirth, they receive check-ups from the GGD (Gemeentelijke Gezondheidsdienst, or Public Health Service of Amsterdam) at various intervals. These check-ups involve health assessments for the child and discussions about the parents' well-being. Essential information regarding feeding, sleeping, and other relevant factors is recorded in a database. With parental consent, this data becomes part of the Sarphati cohort, alongside additional questionnaires that encompass a broader spectrum of data than typically gathered by standard health services. This initiative allows for comprehensive data utilization and presents opportunities for researchers to conduct specialized studies within specific sub-cohorts, such as an intervention study focusing on families with parents experiencing high levels of stress”, Dr. van Rijn explains.

What are the institute’s current research projects?

“At the moment, Sarphati Amsterdam is engaged in various research projects aimed at improving children's health and well-being. One such project involves assessing physical activity levels as well as the quality of sleep among children and their impact on their overall health and risk of developing diseases of affluence. Additionally, Sarphati Amsterdam explores the influence of early life stress on children's health outcomes, seeking to understand the potential long-term effects and develop interventions to mitigate the impact. Given that both the institute and the cohort were created fairly recently, each of our research projects is currently in progress (the newborns who started with the cohort are currently 4 years old)”, she highlights.

Projects for the future

Dr. van Rijn van Gelderen explains, “The initial aim of our institute was to prevent obesity, but we are now extending our scope to include the mental health of parents and children. I think this is a very interesting objective, especially at a time when more and more people are suffering from mental health problems. In fact, the program not only concerns children but also parents, not only on nutritional aspects but also on well-being, child-rearing, stress, and the home environment, for example. We are now moving towards the inclusion of the mental health factor and analysis. This process is ongoing and requires time and organization, but we're on the right track. We recently organized a meeting with scientists and people in the field to develop these questions. The fantastic thing here is that our research is based on input and experience from the field, as practitioners and experts take part in the meetings and give us pointers on what is, for them, important to examine.”

Sarphati Amsterdam is a prime example of a collaborative project between the University of Amsterdam and a number of major external players in research, practice, and policymaking. The significance of such multidisciplinary collaborative efforts at the local level cannot be overstated in shaping a healthier future for Amsterdam’s youth. By bringing together diverse stakeholders and knowledge institutions, this collective approach becomes a powerful catalyst for positive change. It enables the implementation of comprehensive strategies, interventions, and policies that address the complex factors influencing children's health and well-being.

We kindly thank Dr. van Rijn van Gelderen for her time and input. For more information about the institute’s activities and research or to collaborate with Sarphati Amsterdam, you can visit their website by clicking here.

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