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Nijhof, N. (Nienke) MSc.

Expertise

Nienke Nijhof graduated in Communication Studies at the faculty of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Twente in 2007. Her Master Thesis included a research at Focus Cura BV to the determinants of acceptation and adoption from telemedicine by professionals in the healthcare for COPD patients and Heart failure patients in first and second line.

Since June 2008 Nienke is a PhD student at the faculty of Behavioural Sciences of the Department Psychology & Communication of Health & Risk.

Nienke is also working as a project manager Dementia & Research for Focus Cura BV.

Research projects

According to the Dutch Alzheimer foundation there are currently 110.000 persons in the Netherlands who are diagnosed with dementia. Around 120.000 persons have dementia, but the diagnosis is not been made, because symptoms might not be recognized. Dementia is a disease, which develops with age. Through the longer life expectancy the numbers of dementia patients grow rapidly. The number of people with dementia will rise with 45,9% between 2005 and 2050.

The costs for people with dementia are enormous, especially when a person has to go to a nursing home. The Trimbos Institute shows that 22% from the total costs for healthcare in the Netherlands is for treatment of physical disorders. Due to the fact that 25% from these costs is for people with dementia, this means a spending form around 1.8 milliard euro. Almost 93% is for nursing and care giving.

The care for people with dementia is in the first place the domain from family caregivers, volunteers, nurses and doctors. The last couple of years technology to support care for people with dementia is strongly developing. The focus is on the usage of technology for the decrease in a care question by increasing the self-care from the dementia patient and assistance for the family caregiver. Concepts like assisted living, screen-to-screen care and advanced methods for alarms aren’t just for special institutes anymore, but are being used at people’s own home, small living scale houses and nursing homes. The main purpose is to prevent or recognize an alarming situation on time. Examples are UAS, Leo Pollakhuis, LifeStyleMonitoring and IST-Vivago.

These technologies aren’t used that much in the Netherlands yet and research to the behavioral effects of these technologies or the possible financial advantages is very rare. This PhD research, started in June 2008, in cooperation between the company Focus Cura BV and the University of Twente will focus on these aspects.

For this PhD research there have been done a quickscan to existing scientific research international and national in the field of technology for people with dementia. This quickscan is published in June 2009 in the Dutch Magazine for Gerontology and Geriatrics.

In further research different projects will be used to look at the self-care, quality of life, assistance for family caregivers, feeling of safety and work satisfaction for the person with dementia, the family caregivers and the professional caregivers. Within this research there also will be looked at the possible financial advantages with technology for people with dementia. Due to the different projects there will be input for a business model.

In this research there are two main questions split up for the intramural setting and for the extramural setting:

Extramural setting:

At which moment could you start using technology for people with dementia to postpone the moment of intake in a nursing home and realize financial advantages?

The outcomes from this research will be input for a business model, so it’s possible to say at what moment (according to the phase of dementia and several subpopulations) technology can help to postpone an intake in a nursing home. At patient level there will be looked at the financial and qualitative advantages.

Intramural setting:

In what way can technology be helpful with worksavings and workshifting, take into account the work satisfaction from the professional caregivers?

The outcomes of this research will be possible work savings and shifting as a result from the use of the technology in the intramural setting, where effects on quality of life from the patient (how far this is measurable) and work satisfaction from the professional caregiver is also very important.

Projects from different healthcare organizations, intramural and extramural, will participate in this research, related to registration technology (IST Vivago Watch, AD Lifestylemonitoring and sensor technology), signal technology (GPS and sensor technology) and communication technology (PAL4 and Klessebessers).

For this research different innovation, healthcare and behavioral theories will be used to ask the different stakeholders, like dementia patients, family caregivers, professional caregivers about their experiences and to analyze data.

Start research: 1-6-2008

The research is coordinated by:

Prof. Dr. Erwin Seydel, University of Twente, promotor

Prof. Ir. T. de Vries, University of Twente, copromotor

Dr. Lisette van Gemert-Pijnen, University of Twente, daily coordinator

Functions

PhD Student

Project manager Dementia & Research Focus Cura BV

Publications

Nijhof. N., Hoeven, C.L. ter & Jong, M.D.T. de. (2008). Determinants of the use of a Diabetes Screening Risk Test. Journal of Community Health, 33 (5), 313-317.

Nijhof N, Gemert-Pijnen J.E.W.C, van, Dohmen D, Seydel E.R. Dementie en technologie. Een studie naar de toepassingen van techniek in de zorg voor mensen met dementie en hun mantelzorgers. Tijdschrift voor Gerontologie en Geriatrie, 40, 113-132.

For more information see the English button on my website: www.dementietechnologie.nl