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Decision makers in adult social care are increasingly interested in using evidence from research to support or shape their decisions. The scope and nature of the current landscape of adult social care research (ASCR) need to be better understood. This paper provides a bibliometric assessment of ASCR outputs from 1996 to 2011. ASCR papers were retrieved using three strategies: from key journals; using keywords and noun phrases; and from additional papers preferentially citing or being cited by other ASCR papers. Overall, 195,829 ASCR papers were identified in the bibliographic database Scopus, of which 16 per cent involved at least one author from the UK. The UK output increased 2.45-fold between 1996 and 2011. Among selected countries, those with greater research intensity in ASCR generally had higher citation impact, such as the USA, UK, Canada and the Netherlands. The top five UK institutions in terms of volume of papers in the UK accounted for 26 per cent of total output. We conclude by noting the limitations to bibliometric analysis of ASCR and examine how such analysis can support the strategic development of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current COVID-19 pandemic confines people to their homes, disrupting the fragile social fabric of deprived neighbourhoods and citizen's participation options. In deprived neighbourhoods, community engagement is central in building community resilience, an important resource for health and a prerequisite for effective health promotion programmes. It provides access to vulnerable groups and helps understand experiences, assets, needs and problems of citizens. Most importantly, community activities, including social support, primary care or improving urban space, enhance health through empowerment, strengthened social networks, mutual respect and providing a sense of purpose and meaning. In the context of inequalities associated with COVID-19, these aspects are crucial for citizens of deprived neighbourhoods who often feel their needs and priorities are ignored. In this perspectives paper, illustrated by a varied overview of community actions in the UK and The Netherlands, we demonstrate how citizens, communities and organizations may build resilience and community power. Based on in-depth discussion among the authors we distilled six features of community actions: increase in mutual aid and neighbourhood ties, the central role of community-based organizations (CBOs), changing patterns of volunteering, use of digital media and health promotion opportunities. We argue that in order to enable and sustain resilient and confident, 'disaster-proof', communities, areas which merit investment include supporting active citizens, new (digital) ways of community engagement, transforming formal organizations, alignment with the (local) context and applying knowledge in the field of health promotion in new ways, focussing on learning and co-creation with citizen initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, horizon scanning has been recognised as part of forward-looking government processes in a number of industrialised countries. It helps policy-makers in addressing the diversity of future societal and environmental challenges and in addressing the potential of emerging areas of science and technology in an integrated way. This paper discusses the usefulness of horizon scanning as an additional tool for future-oriented technology analysis activities, such as technology foresight and scenario building. Analysing the national horizon scans of the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark in a joint horizon pilot project initiated under the ERA-Net ForSociety, this paper makes a series of recommendations regarding horizon scanning processes at the national level and the construction of common future-oriented policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linked Article: Sarkany et al. Br J Dermatol 2022; 186:713–720. Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a genetic disease in which the system that repairs damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation (which mainly comes from the sun) is faulty. Patients with XP develop eye and skin cancers from childhood and usually die in early adulthood. The main means of preventing the cancers and increasing lifespan is extreme protection against the UV found in daylight, particularly for the face, which is where the cancers mostly occur. Not enough is known about how well patients with XP protect against UV radiation. In this paper, with authors from the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark, a new method was used to estimate face exposure in 36 patients with XP over 3 weeks in the summer. The method combines measurements from a wrist‐worn UV detector with an 'activity diary' of what patients did to protect their face when outside. Some patients with XP protected themselves well whereas others did not. The difference between the face UV dose in the best and worst protecting patients was over 100‐fold. Those patients protecting themselves the least from UV exposure had exposure levels similar to healthy adults. Adults and children with XP had similar exposure to UV but achieved it differently. Adults protected less well when outside but went outside less whereas children went outside more but protected better. This variation in UV exposure is important. Poor protection in patients with XP is likely to cause cancers and premature death. As well as being useful in XP, this new method to estimate facial UV exposure may also be useful in other more common diseases, particularly patients at high risk of basal and squamous cell carcinomas, which are mostly caused by UV and mainly affect the face. Linked Article: Sarkany et al. Br J Dermatol 2022; 186:713–720. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some Western societies, inquiries into fatal abuse of children known to agencies are nowadays a common phenomenon. They have been carried out in the UK for many years, but have recently also emerged in the Netherlands. The main aim of these inquiries is to improve child welfare and protection practice in order to reduce the chance of further child deaths. However, there is reason to critically consider the feasibility of this aim, as British research into child death investigations suggests that they have hardly worked and even may have had counter productive consequences. This paper examines for the first time all Dutch public inquiry reports into child abuse fatalities. It is shown that the problems highlighted in the reports are highly similar to those recurring in their British counterparts. Furthermore, there are considerable similarities between Dutch and British investigations regarding the solutions they propose. Like British inquiries and reviews, Dutch inquiries largely focus on changing procedures, introducing decision-making instruments and increasing monitoring. This one-sided emphasis on bureaucratic measures, the paper argues, does not rate the human side of child protection work at its true value, and makes it questionable whether the inquiries will contribute to improving practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Questions of timing, phasing and sequence have been central to recent critiques of science policy-making, which have highlighted sustained disjunctures between the relevance and importance given to different stakeholders at different moments in the policy-making process. In this paper we expand upon this recent 'upstream/downstream' literature through a case study analysis of xenotransplantation (XTP), one of the defining controversies of 1990s UK biotechnology regulation. Drawing on insights from the sociology of expectations we trace the emergence of a UK policy narrative concerning the future of XTP and explore how the policy role became narrowly defined as a process of 'reflex regulation', based upon technologically determinist assumptions and producing extremely short-term decision-making. We draw attention to the concrete costs of this delineation of the policy role and reveal that it is neither inevitable or necessary, by considering contrasts between the policy temporalities of the UK, Canada and the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has contributed to confirming the link between education and health in developed countries. The analysis is based on 11 European Union countries. We estimate country-specific health functions, where the dependent variable is self-reported health status and the education attainment is one of the main inputs. All eight waves (1994–2001) of the European Community Household Panel are deployed. A random effects ordered probit is estimated in order to control, to a given extent, for unobserved heterogeneity. Explanatory variables are both time invariant (education attainment and gender) and time varying (gross wages, hours of work, age and living alone). Results confirm the positive impact of secondary education on health in most cases and tertiary education in all cases, even after controlling for other inputs in the health function and taking unobserved heterogeneity into account. Secondary education has an impact on health in all countries in the sample except for The Netherlands and UK. The effect does not differ between secondary and tertiary education in France, Ireland and Greece. The correlation between education and health is interpreted in different but complementary ways by diverse approaches and we may not disentangle the precise mechanism that connects health with education from our results. Anyway, it seems clear that better coordination is needed between education and health policies to effectively improve health literacy. Other relevant results from our study are that women register poorer health than men, age contributes to worsening health status and wages contribute positively to health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wood dust is an established carcinogen also linked to several non malignant respiratory disorders. A major limitation in research on wood dust and its health effects is the lack of (historical) quantitative estimates of occupational exposure for use in general population-based case-control or cohort studies. The present study aimed to develop a multinational quantitative Job Exposure Matrix (JEM) for wood dust exposure using exposure data from several Northern and Central European countries. For this, an occupational exposure database containing 12653 personal wood dust measurements collected between 1978 and 2007 in Denmark, Finland, France, The Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom (UK) was established. Measurement data were adjusted for differences in inhalable dust sampling efficiency resulting from the use of different dust samplers and analysed using linear mixed effect regression with job codes (ISCO-88) and country treated as random effects. Fixed effects were the year of measurement, the expert assessment of exposure intensity (no, low, and high exposure) for every ISCO-88 job code from an existing wood dust JEM and sampling duration. The results of the models suggest that wood dust exposure has declined annually by approximately 8%. Substantial differences in exposure levels between countries were observed with the highest levels in the United Kingdom and the lowest in Denmark and Norway, albeit with similar job rankings across countries. The jobs with the highest predicted exposure are floor layers and tile setters, wood-products machine operators, and building construction labourers with geometric mean levels for the year 1997 between 1.7 and 1.9 mg/m3. The predicted exposure estimates by the model are compared with the results of wood dust measurement data reported in the literature. The model predicted estimates for full-shift exposures were used to develop a time-dependent quantitative JEM for exposure to wood dust that can be used to estimate exposure for participants of general population studies in Northern European countries on the health effects from occupational exposure to wood dust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In Europe, more than 15 million people live with heart failure (HF). It imposes an enormous social, organizational and economic burden. As a reaction to impending impact on healthcare provision, different country-specific structures for HF-care have been established. The aim of this report is to provide an overview and compare the HF-care approaches of Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK, and to open the possibility of learning from each other's experience. Methods A mixed methods approach was implemented that included a literature analysis, interviews and questionnaires with HF-patients and caregivers, and expert interviews with representatives from healthcare, health service research and medical informatics. Results The models of HF-care in all countries analyzed are based on the European Society of Cardiology guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of HF. Even though the HF-models differed in design and implementation in practice, key challenges were similar: (i) unequal distribution of care between urban and rural areas, (ii) long waiting times, (iii) unequal access to and provision of healthcare services, (iv) information and communication gaps and (v) inadequate implementation and financing of digital applications. Conclusion Although promising approaches exist to structure and improve HF-care, across the four countries, implementation was reluctant to embrace novel methods. A lack of financial resources and insufficient digitalization making it difficult to adopt new concepts. Integration of HF-nurses seems to be an effective way of improving current models of HF-care. Digital solutions offer further opportunities to overcome communication and coordination gaps and to strengthen self-management skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background the mySupport advance care planning intervention was originally developed and evaluated in Northern Ireland (UK). Family caregivers of nursing home residents with dementia received an educational booklet and a family care conference with a trained facilitator to discuss their relative's future care. Objectives to investigate whether upscaling the intervention adapted to local context and complemented by a question prompt list impacts family caregivers' uncertainty in decision-making and their satisfaction with care across six countries. Second, to investigate whether mySupport affects residents' hospitalisations and documented advance decisions. Design a pretest–posttest design. Setting in Canada, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK, two nursing homes participated. Participants in total, 88 family caregivers completed baseline, intervention and follow-up assessments. Methods family caregivers' scores on the Decisional Conflict Scale and Family Perceptions of Care Scale before and after the intervention were compared with linear mixed models. The number of documented advance decisions and residents' hospitalisations was obtained via chart review or reported by nursing home staff and compared between baseline and follow-up with McNemar tests. Results family caregivers reported less decision-making uncertainty (−9.6, 95% confidence interval: −13.3, −6.0, P  < 0.001) and more positive perceptions of care (+11.4, 95% confidence interval: 7.8, 15.0; P  < 0.001) after the intervention. The number of advance decisions to refuse treatment was significantly higher after the intervention (21 vs 16); the number of other advance decisions or hospitalisations was unchanged. Conclusions the mySupport intervention may be impactful in countries beyond the original setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal impact of academic research has become a central concern of contemporary science policies. As key players in the higher education sector, universities play a crucial role in translating policy into organizational strategies, which then have the potential to shape academics' practices. This article investigates the influence that universities may have on academics' impact practices. We employ an analytical framework that combines a novel method for studying university impact strategies, sense-making theory, and insights from literature on impact. Our data consist of interviews with sixteen philosophers and anthropologists working across four universities in the Netherlands and the UK. We find that, in response to organizational goals and Human Resource Management policies, academics report changing their impact practices. We call for universities to use their influence responsibly in order to enable a broad range of impact practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a calendar of events related to the field of economics. The annual general meeting of the Royal Economic Society of Great Britain will take place on July 17, 1986 at Imperial College in London, England. A conference on unemployment in Europe has been organized by the European Production Study Group in cooperation with the University of Limburg in Maastricht, Netherlands on April 17 and 18, 1986. The International Economic Association will conduct its Eight World Congress in New Delhi, India from December 1 to 5, 1986.

In this paper we define and estimate measures of labor market frictions using data on job durations. We compare different estimation methods and different types of data. We propose and apply an unconditional inference method that can be applied to aggregate duration data. It does not require wage data, it is invariant to the way in which wages are determined, and it allows workers to care about other job characteristics. The empirical analysis focuses on France, but we perform separate analyses for the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. We quantify the monopsony power due to search frictions and we examine the policy effects of the minimum wage, unemployment benefits, and search frictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain (CWP) is a characteristic symptom of fibromyalgia, which has been shown to be associated with an altered gut microbiome. Microbiome studies to date have not examined the milder CWP phenotype specifically nor have they explored the role of raised BMI. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the microbiome is abnormal in CWP. Methods CWP was assessed using a standardized screening questionnaire in female volunteers from the TwinsUK cohort including 113 CWP cases and 1623 controls. The stool microbiome was characterized using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and amplicon sequence variants, and associations with CWP examined using linear mixed-effects models adjusting for BMI, age, diet, family relatedness and technical factors. Results Alpha diversity was significantly lower in CWP cases than controls (Mann–Whitney test, P -values 2.3e-04 and 1.2e-02, for Shannon and Simpson indices respectively). The species Coprococcus comes was significantly depleted in CWP cases (P adj = 3.04e-03). A genome-wide association study (GWAS) performed for C. comes in TwinsUK followed by meta-analysis with three Dutch cohorts (total n  = 3521) resulted in nine suggestive regions, with the most convincing on chromosome 4 near the TRAM1L1 gene (rs76957229, P  = 7.4e-8). A Mendelian randomization study based on the results of the GWAS did not support a causal role for C. comes on the development of CWP. Conclusions We have demonstrated reduced diversity in the microbiome in CWP, indicating an involvement of the gut microbiota in CWP; prospectively the microbiome may offer therapeutic opportunities for this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which examined the changes brought by the adoption of the Healthy Cities project of the World Health Organization toward health policies from cities in the Netherlands and Great Britain. Background on the health project; Elements of policy change; Methodology; Implications for policy change.

Research suggests that social identity plays an important role in citizen's views of legal authorities. This article draws on fieldwork observations and semi-structured interviews or surveys to examine both officer's perceptions and the experiences of people that are stopped in the context of border policing in the border areas of the Netherlands. Our results indicate that non-Dutch citizens and Dutch majority group members generally find these stops acceptable, while Dutch ethnic minority group members perceive them as more problematic. This was mostly related to the feeling of being profiled and a lack of clarity about the reason for the stop. While officers were committed to fair treatment, they also believed that the impact of a stop is very limited. The article finishes by discussing the implications of these findings for issues of belonging and legitimacy. The article finishes by discussing the implications of these findings for issues of belonging and legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Concerns have been raised about the impact of alcohol sports sponsorship on harmful consumption, with some countries banning this practice or considering a ban. We review evidence on the relationship between exposure to alcohol sports sponsorship and alcohol consumption. Methods: Search of electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar and International Alcohol Information Database) supplemented by hand searches of references and conference proceedings to locate studies providing data on the impact of exposure to alcohol sports sponsorship and outcomes relating to alcohol consumption. Results: Seven studies met inclusion criteria, presenting data on 12,760 participants from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Poland. All studies report positive associations between exposure to alcohol sports sponsorship and self-reported alcohol consumption, but the statistical significance of results varies. Two studies found indirect exposure to alcohol sports sponsorship was associated with increased levels of drinking amongst schoolchildren, and five studies found a positive association between direct alcohol sports sponsorship and hazardous drinking amongst adult sportspeople. Conclusion: These findings corroborate the results of previous systematic reviews that reported a positive association between exposure to alcohol marketing and alcohol consumption. The relationship between alcohol sports sponsorship and increased drinking amongst schoolchildren will concern policymakers. Further research into the effectiveness of restrictions on alcohol sports sponsorship in reducing harmful drinking is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrants' access to and use of welfare benefits have been the subject of heated debate in many west-European countries. In this article, I examine public solidarity with unemployed welfare claimants and focus on how claimants' ethnic background and migration status affect their perceived deservingness. I use a novel vignette experiment administered among a representative sample of 5,000 respondents from Britain and 4,000 from the Netherlands. Besides ethnic background and migration status, I manipulated six other characteristics of the claimant, such as effort to find a new job, level of need, and work history. I show that the ethnic background of claimants is not a decisive factor of deservingness once these other factors are accounted for. In the Netherlands, and to a lesser extent also in Britain, second-generation ethnic minorities who have a long work history and who make much effort to find a new job are considered as deserving as similar majority claimants. However, this analyses did expose a double standard: ethnic minority claimants who exhibit 'unfavourable' behaviour--those who migrated at a later age, failed to look for work, or have a short work history--are punished more severely for this than similar majority Dutch or British claimants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study is presented on British anti-slavery, or abolitionist, in Holland during the mid 19th century, including the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society's (BFASS's) role in this regard. An overview of British abolitionists' relations with continental European abolitionist movements is provided.

Aims: To determine the relation between existing levels of alcohol screening and brief intervention rates in five European jurisdictions and role security and therapeutic commitment by the participating primary healthcare professionals. Methods: Health care professionals consisting of, 409GPs, 282 nurses and 55 other staff including psychologists, social workers and nurse aids from 120 primary health care centres participated in a cross-sectional 4-week survey. The participants registered all screening and brief intervention activities as part of their normal routine. The participants also completed the Shortened Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire (SAAPPQ), which measure role security and therapeutic commitment. Results: The only significant but small relationship was found between role security and screening rate in a multilevel logistic regression analysis adjusted for occupation of the provider, number of eligible patients and the random effects of jurisdictions and primary health care units (PHCU). No significant relationship was found between role security and brief intervention rate nor between therapeutic commitment and screening rate/brief intervention rate. The proportion of patients screened varied across jurisdictions between 2 and 10%. Conclusion: The findings show that the studied factors (role security and therapeutic commitment) are not of great importance for alcohol screening and BI rates. Given the fact that screening and brief intervention implementation rate has not changed much in the last decade in spite of increased policy emphasis, training initiatives and more research being published, this raises a question about what else is needed to enhance implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 'burden reducing' agenda has spurred an increased interest in how EU environmental legislation is transposed into national legislation--most prominently reflected in the principle of 'no gold-plating'. Yet, an important question is to what extent transposition principles and practices may ensure a coherent and accessible body of environmental legislation, while at the same time ensuring adequate transposition of EU environmental legislation. This article analyses the existence, or emergence, of transposition principles and practices in three Member States--the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark. It also examines how EU initiatives may influence these principles and practices. The article concludes that the steering of transposition processes by general transposition principles and objectives alone, and in particular those dominated by a 'burden reducing' agenda, has a limited focus on coherence and accessibility with respect to environmental legislation and that such issues deserve more attention in the transposition process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the European Commission, the vast majority of large antitrust damages actions are currently being brought in three Member States—the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom.These actions are mostly follow-on damages claims and almost exclusively relate to cartel infringements.They are still in the early stages and the judgments that have been issued thus far tend to relate to procedural questions like jurisdiction, a stay of the legal proceedings and document exhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to establish what lessons might be available to the English health care sector following enactment of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 from the Dutch experience of introducing market competition into health care via a mandatory health insurance scheme implemented by for-profit insurance companies. The existence of the Beveridge NHS model in England, and a Bismarckian insurance system in The Netherlands perhaps suggest that a comparison of the two countries is at best limited, and reinforced by the different Enthoven-inspired competitive models each has adopted. However, we contend that there are positive and negative issues arising from introducing competition into health care—, e.g. concerns about equity and benefits of efficiencies—which go beyond national boundaries and different systems and reflect the global paradigm shift towards the use of market forces in previously non-market areas such as health. The article examines the situation in England following the HSCA 2012 and The Netherlands following the 2006 reforms before analysing two areas of common ground: the focus in both countries on competition on quality (as opposed to price) and integrated care, which is assuming ever greater significance. We suggest that our combined insights (as a health lawyer and competition lawyer respectively) coupled with a comparative approach create a novel contribution to current calls for a wider public debate about the real role of markets in health care over and above simple characterisation as a force for good or bad. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A national health care service is one of the central pillars of the welfare state in Europe. Recent moves to modernise health care, alongside introducing efficiencies through competition have resulted in experimentation and a re-organisation of national health care systems. The experimental nature of the reforms has brought health care into the focus, but uncertain territory, of EU economic law, especially competition law. Added to these pressures, the new EU fiscal measures oblige Member States to avoid excessive budgets and macro-economic imbalances. One constraint on an EU-based system of competition in health care is the effect of decentralisation, resulting in variations at the national level. Thus a case study is taken of the experience in The Netherlands. From this case study, we argue that a new form of Euro-national competition law is emerging for the health care sector with national authorities taking the lead in shaping the contours of this law. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Depression affects 20% of people with coronary heart disease (CHD) and predicts worse health-related quality of life (HRQoL), but in primary studies the strength of this reported relationship has been inconsistent. Aims and methods: We conducted a systematic review to investigate the extent to which depression independently predicts subsequent physical HRQoL. We searched electronic databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL and EMBASE) to identify prospective cohort studies that included CHD patients, focused on depression and subsequent physical HRQoL using standardised measures. Included studies were assessed for methodological quality. Results: We identified 11 independent studies, of which nine showed a significant association between depression and subsequent physical HRQoL. There was no systematic methodological difference between those studies that did and did not show a significant association; in particular the results did not appear to be affected by the way depression or physical HRQoL was measured. Five of the 11 studies were of moderate to high methodological quality and controlled for both HRQoL and the severity of CHD at baseline. Four studies showed a significant association between depression and HRQoL. Conclusions: Depression predicts subsequent physical HRQoL and this association was not attributable to confounding effects of baseline HRQoL or the severity of the CHD. Identification of depressed CHD patients may improve targeting of resources at people at increased risk of worse physical HRQoL. Treating depression may improve subsequent physical HRQoL, though this needs to be established in future randomised controlled trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the scope of criminal and administrative law enforcement of environmental violations in four Western European jurisdictions. The Flemish Region and the United Kingdom have, until mid-2009, largely relied only on criminal sanctioning while administrative sanctions, which have also been in use since mid-2009, have already been widely used in the Netherlands and Germany. This article considers whether, given a fixed budget for the relevant national environment agency, single (criminal) or multiple (criminal and administrative) enforcement instruments are adequate to induce compliance. The fact that administrative proceedings are less strict and more informal than criminal proceedings suggests that the imposition of administrative sanctions is a relatively cheaper alternative. Therefore, in case of environmental violations, it is cost-effective to complement criminal law enforcement by administrative law rather than to allow for a single (criminal) sanctioning instrument. Complementary use of these two instruments might lead to additional deterrence. Data is presented to illustrate this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discuses the methodological considerations for clinical guidelines developers in addressing particular physical therapy-related issues when developing guidelines for physical therapy diagnosis and treatment. It cites the Appraisal of Guidelines, Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument for assessing the quality of clinical practice guidelines. It proposes a collaboration for the production of international evidence statements for physical therapist practice based on the growth of knowledge in the field.

This article applies spatial theory to the question of the party mandate. The party mandate model provides a system of linkage between citizen's preferences and parliamentary and governmental politics. Existing approaches to the party mandate focus on parties’ governmental mandate: do parties enact their pledges? Instead, the spatial approach looks at the representative aspect of the party mandate: how parties represent in parliament. This allows a more inclusive analysis of parties’ mandates as well as an evaluation of opposition parties’ records. The spatial approach is connected to Pitkin's idea that representation is an ‘institutionalised arrangement’. Thus, it focuses on the congruence of the electoral and parliamentary party competition rather than the record of individual parties. Analysis of recent elections and parliaments in the UK and the Netherlands reveals that the spatial approach offers the ability to analyse different political systems and can uncover differences between government and opposition and front- and backbenchers. Contrary to the findings of earlier studies, this study reveals that the party mandate model does not only apply to government parties and to Westminster style democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Managers are key actors shaping employees’ capabilities to utilize work–life policies. However, most research on managers’ implementation of these policies has been conducted in liberal welfare states and ignores the impact of institutional context. In this study, we situate managers within specific workplace and national layers of context. We investigated how managers in financial organizations in the Netherlands, UK, and Slovenia talk about the utilization of work–life policies. Managers’ discourses stressed disruption and dependency considerations in these case studies, as in the US research. However, a further management discourse of the moral case or right thing to do also emerged. The lack of resources for replacing staff on leave creates disruption and reduces managers capability to support the use of work–life policies, even when they are statutory or if managers are inclined be supportive (dependency or moral argument). This is likely to impact on parents' capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the ways in which Great Britain, France, and The Netherlands attempted to bolster their economic development and stability during the period of post-World War II reconstruction by increasing the power of their respective empires on an international level. The author refers to this as a period of new imperialism, focusing upon Great Britain’s empire in Africa, The Netherlands’ empire in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), and the empire known as the French Union. A correlation between overseas economic development and a dollar shortage following World War II is discussed.

Registration or recognition systems for best-practice health promotion interventions may contribute to better quality assurance and control in health promotion practice. In the Netherlands, such a system has been developed and is being implemented aiming to provide policy makers and professionals with more information on the quality and effectiveness of available health promotion interventions and to promote use of good-practice and evidence-based interventions by health promotion organizations. The quality assessments are supervised by the Netherlands Organization for Public Health and the Environment and the Netherlands Youth Institute and conducted by two committees, one for interventions aimed at youth and one for adults. These committees consist of experts in the fields of research, policy and practice. Four levels of recognition are distinguished inspired by the UK Medical Research Council's evaluation framework for complex interventions to improve health: (i) theoretically sound, (ii) probable effectiveness, (iii) established effectiveness, and (iv) established cost effectiveness. Specific criteria have been set for each level of recognition, except for Level 4 which will be included from 2011. This point of view article describes and discusses the rationale, organization and criteria of this Dutch recognition system and the first experiences with the system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background:: Evidence suggests that Dutch people smoke substantially more than their British counterparts. These differences have been suggested to relate, in part, to the health-related policy differences between the two countries. It is unclear whether these differences affect smoking among ethnic minority groups in similar ways. We assessed whether the lower smoking prevalence in the U.K. general population compared with the Netherlands is also observed in ethnic minority groups (i.e., Dutch vs. English South Asians and Dutch- vs. English-Africans). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Occupational defined benefit (DB) pensions today are outmoded and increasingly costly corporate burdens and are now in decline. However, the transformation of DB is found to be contingent on the institutional setting in which transformation occurs. In this article we offer a modest conceptualization of the interplay between global pressures for change and convergence, particularly accounting harmonization, and the local institutional environment and geography that filter these forces in the context of DB pensions. We demonstrate this behavior through analyses of DB transformation and decline in the UK and the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research on work and family, employment policy, and social goals in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. The topics include: the state's role in balancing the labor-relations issue of employment and family responsibilities; the outlook for flexible working hours, a combination of paid and unpaid work, and childcare services; social policy in European Union countries that supports the employment of women; patterns of labor market behavior; and parental attitudes about caring for children that involves taking a leave from work.

In this article we investigate whether early retirement patterns vary between countries with distinct early retirement systems. By choosing countries that differ not only with respect to the coverage and generosity of publicly provided pensions but also with respect to the extent to which the state interferes in the non-public pillars of pension provision, we analyse to what extent such issues have an effect on individual early retirement behaviour. Selectivity effects are expected to be stronger in countries with highly fragmented public systems or private early retirement schemes. By pursuing a shift to more private pension provisions, governments might unintentionally create more inequality in early retirement opportunities among the population. For the analysis we use longitudinal data, i.e. British Household Panel Study (BHPS) 1991-2004 (the United Kingdom), the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) 1990-2005 (Germany, and the Socia-Economics Panel (SEP) 1990-2001 (Netherlands) and a discrete-time competing-risks model. The results suggest that pursuing a shift from public to private early retirement schemes can lower the incidence of early retirement. Yet, at the same time, early retirement can get more selective in that only the higher paid are able to afford it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Set against the backdrop of counter-trafficking initiatives at international level, this article draws on the findings of a comparative study that investigated (through semi-structured interviews with officials and interest groups) the merits and demerits of domestic level responses in the United Kingdom, Australia, Holland, Sweden and Italy. In a context in which trafficking in women for sexual purposes can be understood through the lens of numerous frameworks (human rights, criminality, prostitution policy, immigration, social exclusion, etc.), this article examines the extent to which these different agendas have influenced the construction and operation of the respective domestic regimes. More specifically, it illustrates the extent to which the ambiguities inherent in the United Nation's most recent Anti-Trafficking Protocol permit scope for the incorporation and/or perpetuation of discretion at domestic level. Highlighting the underlying tensions between competing immigration, human rights, policing and social services imperatives, the differential resolution of which leads to the divergence in domestic response, this article situates this complex engagement in the broader context of debates about globalization, exploitation and prostitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic or chronically relapsing inflammatory skin condition that can have a considerable impact on those affected. There are a number of instruments available to measure outcome in dermatological conditions but none have been developed specifically for AD. In addition, most measure symptoms and/or daily functioning, which are potential influences on quality of life (QoL) rather than assessments of the construct itself. The aim of the current study was to develop a new instrument specifically designed to measure QoL in adults with AD—the Quality of Life Index for Atopic Dermatitis (QoLIAD). The instrument was developed based on the needs-based model of QoL and was produced in several different countries simultaneously. Its content was derived from 65 in-depth interviews with relevant patients in the U.K., Italy and the Netherlands. The initial version of the measure was produced in U.K. English and translations were produced for the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France and the U.S.A. using a dual translation panel methodology. A Spanish version was developed using the same adaptation process after the instrument was finalized. Field-test interviews were conducted with approximately 20 patients in each country to assess face and content validity. The instrument [in addition to the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and the Psychological General Well-Being Schedule (PGWB)] was then administered to up to 300 AD patients in each country at two time points to finalize the instrument and test its psychometric properties. The initial version of the QoLIAD had 56 items that reflected the areas of need fulfilment identified in the qualitative interviews as having been affected by AD: mental and emotional stimulation, physical and emotional stability, security, sharing and belonging, self-esteem, personal development and fulfilment. Comments from patients in field-test interviews resulted in the removal of 14 items, to leave a 42-item instrument that was considered relevant and acceptable. The number of patients participating in the survey were 286 in the U.K., 46 in the Netherlands, 213 in France, 187 in Germany, 178 in the U.S.A. and 83 in Spain. Application of the Rasch model to these data identified the final 25-item QoLIAD. Unidimensionality was confirmed, with deviation of the total scale from the Rasch model evident at a single time point in one country only (the U.K.). All language versions, with the exception of the Dutch measure, had test–retest reliability coefficients in excess of 0·85. The test–retest in the Netherlands was 0·80. However, this country had the smallest sample size and the corresponding reliability for the DLQI was only 0·40. The QoLIAD had adequate internal consistency and the initial indications of construct validity were good. The levels of association with the DLQI indicated that the two instruments measure related but distinct constructs. The QoLIAD is a practical, reliable, valid and culturally applicable instrument for measuring the impact of AD and its treatment on QoL in clinical trials or in routine clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a cross-national comparative investigation of (1) similarities and differences between nominal and thematic public agenda diversity both within and between countries; (2) potential general predictors of the two types of agenda diversity; and (3) the relationship between the agenda diversity of television news and nominal and thematic public agenda diversity. Drawing on representative, identical surveys conducted at the same point of time in Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, we found that nominal agenda diversity was higher than thematic agenda diversity within the various countries. Between countries, both nominal and thematic agenda diversity varied considerably. Neither demographic variables nor media exposure and attention measures nor political interest turned out to be general predictors of the two types of agenda diversity in all of the countries. However, the number of television news outlets watched had a positive impact on both nominal and thematic agenda diversity in all countries except France. Linking content analysis of television news in each country to survey data, a positive relationship between news agenda diversity and public agenda diversity was found only for Denmark. Based on the findings, we suggest that the investigation of public agenda diversity should be rethought to enhance our understanding of public agenda diversity in particular and agenda-setting in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the increase at the beginning of the 1980s unemployment in the European Union has remained high. Now, at the end of the 1990s, it is slowly declining but still averages about 10% of the working population. This poor performance is not shared by every European country, however. In particular, much has been made of the relatively good performance of the Netherlands and Great Britain. It is asked whether the Netherlands and Great Britain really have had such an outstanding labour market performance and if so, why is this the case and what lessons can be drawn for other countries. The strategy is to use recent international comparisons to identify the potential determinants of labour market performance and to investigate in detail to what extent these determinants play a role in the specific labour markets of the Netherlands and Great Britain. In the early 1980s standardized unemployment rates in the Netherlands and Great Britain were well above the European Union (EU) average. By the late 1980s unemployment in both countries had fallen to the EU average and was well below.

This study examines the impact of gender on attitudes towards marriage and divorce in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, and Ireland. The results suggest a basic similarity in attitudes across nations and gender differences only in relation to divorce attitudes. For these seven countries at least, while gender is an important factor in explaining attitudes towards divorce, it has no significant impact in relation to marriage attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Views on ethical conduct in occupational medicine practice can vary from country to country and even between occupational health practitioners. However, there are many areas of common agreement, and this is apparent on comparing guidance documents on ethics produced by several different organizations. The usefulness of these documents will depend in part on how aware practitioners are of their existence. A standardized questionnaire administered to 70 occupational physicians in the Netherlands, UK, and Singapore showed that there was a lack of awareness of guidance documents on ethics, even for publications from their own countries. Only five of the 70 respondents consulted an ethics document in the past year. In addition to publications, other avenues were used for advice on ethical issues. There was a difference in opinion between the physicians from Singapore and those from the two European countries on whether specific occupational health activities were ethical. These findings reinforce the need for international guidance on ethics to take into account differences in attitudes and practice between countries. On many issues there was no unanimity of opinion, even between occupational physicians from the same country. This may be an indication of the complexity of ethical matters, and provides a rationale for publishing guidance on ethics in occupational medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents memorandums related to law and legislations of several economies as of February 1900. Details of changes made in German bank laws; Discussion on national and local taxation in Great Britain; Laws enacted by Holland and Switzerland for compulsory insurance of employees.

In recent years, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has developed into a routine diagnostic procedure in health care. Although during this process, several initiatives have been employed to regulate the procedure, access to PGD may be hampered by the diversity in health-care arrangements or therapeutic cultures in different countries. This article demonstrates how PGD provision practices depend on much more than regulation alone, by providing an in-depth comparative analysis of the provision of PGD in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. In analysing regulation, organization, selection of indications, and mechanisms and criteria for reimbursement, differences between these countries can be identified. This is important, since differences in PGD provision can have enormous consequences for the access of individual patients in different countries. Somewhat paradoxically, this article concludes that even though differences in access do have serious consequences, they also serve the establishment of PGD. Developing access to PGD in national ‘therapeutic cultures’ can contribute to making PGD routine health care in a way that may not be achievable by harmonizing regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article was to describe the structure and content of a job-exposure matrix (JEM) for historical asbestos exposure in The Netherlands. The JEM contained 309 occupational job title groups in 70 branches of industry during 10 periods of 5 years during 1945–1994, resulting in 3090 evaluations. Dutch sources on asbestos exposure measurements provided quantitative guidance for 69 evaluations (2.2%) in 25 occupational title groups. In addition, three databases from the UK Health and Safety Executive contributed to 222 evaluations (7.2%) and several other sources aided in another 133 evaluations (4.3%). These evaluations resulted in seven categories of exposure levels for all 3090 combinations of occupational title groups and periods. A verification process with five experts was used to adjust the assignments of exposure categories. The trends in exposure patterns over time were described in relation to production activities, operational control measures and the presence of dust control measures. For the majority of asbestos-related diseases in the past decades, reliable information on their historical exposure patterns was lacking. The limited availability of exposure measurements in the past illustrates the need for a structured assessment of historical asbestos exposure through a JEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]