Ruben Willems

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Verified

Ruben verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• PostDoc Position at Ghent University

AimTo scrutinize the economic impact of different care levels, such as shared care, in the follow-up of adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients.Methods The BELgian COngenital heart disease Database combining Administrative and Clinical data (BELCODAC) was analyzed. Patients (N = 6579) were categorized into five care levels based on their car...

The Feel4Diabetes-study implemented a school- and community-based intervention to promote healthy lifestyle and prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in six European countries. The intervention included a special focus on families at increased T2DM risk. The current study evaluates the intervention's cost-effectiveness. A Markov-type health econo...

Background Digital health interventions are effective for hypertension self-management, but a comparison of the effectiveness and implementation of the different modes of interventions is not currently available. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of SMS, smartphone application, and website interventions on improving blood pressure in ad...

Background Digital health interventions have shown promising results for the management of type 2 diabetes, but a comparison of the effectiveness and implementation of the different modes is not currently available. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of SMS, smartphone application, and website-based interventions on improving...

Digital health interventions have been shown to be clinically-effective for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hypertension prevention and treatment. This study synthesizes and compares the cost-effectiveness of text-messaging, smartphone application, and websites by searching CINAHL, Cochrane Central, Embase, Medline and PsycInfo for full economi...

This study assessed the dietary intake of European children by country, gender, and obesity degree across six European countries participating in the Feel4Diabetes study. It also compared food group intakes with European food-based dietary guidelines. The Feel4Diabetes study included 9,847 children (50.4% girls) from six European countries. Familie...

Objective To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a digital supportive healthcare pathway in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) compared to usual care. Methods An age-dependent Markov model was applied from a healthcare payer perspective projecting results of a clinical trial study over a time horizon of 22 years assuming a continuous imp...

Digital screening programs and tools provide the potential for early detection of chronic diseases such as diabetes in the general population. The main purpose of the current paper is to present the findings of a multi-country study conducted with implementers (i.e., health professionals) and citizens (i.e., patients) to assess the usability and ac...

Belgium exhibits a complex governmental structure with overlapping yet fragmented healthcare service responsibilities across various levels. The past decade has been characterized with major political reforms, and a continuing road towards deinstitutionalization, enhancing care intensity, and fortifying primary care services. This article provides...

Purpose: Several high-income countries install Cash-for-Care Schemes (CCSs) by granting budgets to care users. However, little quantitative evidence exist on empowerment and client-centered care levels, due to a lack of validated scales. This research aimed to validate the Psychological Empowerment Scale (PE scale) and Client-Centered Care Questio...

Objectives: This study primarily aimed to develop a validated Dutch translation of the 28 items of the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) II. A secondary aim was to provide a worked example of a scientifically valid translation process. Methods: A four-step process was applied: (1) forward translation, (2) backw...

Background: Depression creates a substantial personal burden for affected individuals and their families, and produces significant economic and social hardships that affect society as a whole. In Belgium, depression is a leading cause of disability, measured as disability-adjusted life years. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated the alread...

Introduction: Aligning healthcare systems worldwide to meet the challenge of caring for the world’s rapidly growing older population is among the most important goals of the World Health Organization (WHO) Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030). This entails ensuring people have broad access to the most effective diagnostic and prevention strategies,...

Background Over half of the European population aged minimum 65 years presents with at least two chronic diseases. Attention towards these diseases exhibits disparities, with limited primary care physician (PCP) attention for osteoporosis. This was confirmed in a previous integrated osteoporosis care (IOC) project in which notable difficulties to e...

Objectives: Globally, patients with osteoporosis have unmet needs in terms of care accessibility, patient-centredness and care comprehensiveness. The WHO developed the Integrated, People-Centred Health Services (IPCHS) framework to reorient and integrate healthcare systems using 5 interdependent strategies and 20 substrategies. Patients' perspecti...

Background Telemedicine is already in use in daily practice, but appropriate reimbursement and physician payment is falling behind in many countries. One reason is the limited availability of research on the matter. This research therefore examined physicians’ views on the optimal use and payment modalities for telemedicine. Methods Sixty-one semi...

Background: A proportion of patients with Lyme borreliosis (LB) report long-term persisting signs and symptoms, even after recommended antibiotic treatment, which is termed post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). Consensus on guidance regarding diagnosis and treatment is currently lacking. Consequently, patients suffer and are left searching...

Integrated Osteoporosis Care (IOC) has been emerging over the past decade. To support integrated care initiatives, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed the Integrated People Centred Health Services (IPCHS) framework, which consists of five interdependent strategies. Five electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, World of Science, CINAHL, a...

Background The frequency of family meals has been suggested as a protective factor against obesity among children. Objective This study aimed to investigate the cross‐sectional and longitudinal associations between family meals frequency and children's overweight/obesity in families at high risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) across six European countri...

Digital health interventions are effective for hypertension self-management, but a comparison of the effectiveness and implementation of the different modes is lacking. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of short message service (SMS), smartphone application and website interventions on improving blood pressure in people with hypertensio...

Objective: To examine the parental food consumption and DQ and its associations with children's consumption in families at high risk for developing T2DM across Europe. Also, to compare food frequency consumption among parents and children from high-risk families to the European Dietary guidelines/recommendations. Design: Cross-sectional study us...

Background Although many adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) still die prematurely, end-of-life care for these patients receives limited attention. There are indications that current care provision at the end of life is burdensome, expensive, and not in line with patients' needs and preferences. We sought to analyse end-of-life care in adult...

Background and aims Although life expectancy in adults with congenital heart diseases (CHD) has increased dramatically over the past five decades, still a substantial number of patients dies prematurely. To gain understanding in the trajectories of dying in adults with CHD, the last year of life warrants further investigation. Therefore, our study...

Background : Childhood obesity remains one of the most significant challenges in public health globally. Objective : To assess associations among home food availability, parenting practices, health beliefs, screen time, and childhood overweight/obesity. Methods : A cross-sectional analysis of 12,041 parent-child dyads from six European countries....

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): Research Foundation Flanders (to PM, EG, and LVB) European Society of Cardiology (Nursing Training Grant to LVB) Background Heart failure (HF) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). Although limited in scope,...

A family meal is defined as a meal consumed together by the members of a family or by having ≥ 1 parent present during a meal. The frequency of family meals has been associated with healthier food intake patterns in both children and parents. This study aimed to investigate in families at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes across Europe the a...

Objective This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of FPPs, including home availability of different types of foods and drinks, parental modelling of fruit intake, permissiveness, and the use of food as a reward, in the relationship between parental education and dietary intake in European children. Design Single mediation analyses were...

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): This work was supported by Research Foundation Flanders [grant numbers G097516N to PM, 12E9816N to EG and 1154719N to LVB]; the King Baudouin Foundation (Fund Joseph Oscar Waldmann-Berteau & Fund Walckiers Van Dessel); the National Foun...

Background: Influenza vaccination is the most commonly recommended immune prevention strategy. However, data on influenza vaccination in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) is scarce. In this study, our goals were to (i) measure vaccination coverage rates (VCR) for influenza in a large cohort of children, adolescents and adults with CHD,...

Food parenting practices (FPPs) have an important role in shaping children’s dietary behaviors. This study aimed to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations over a twoyear follow-up between FPP and dietary intake and compliance with current recommendations in 6- to 11-year-old European children. A total of 2967 parent-child dyads f...

Positive influences of family members have been associated with a high probability of children’s daily breakfast consumption. Therefore, the aim of this study was to scrutinize the association of breakfast routines between mothers and their children. The baseline data of the Feel4Diabetes-study was obtained in 9760 children (49.05% boys)–mother pai...

Background: Three-dimensional anatomic models have been used for surgical planning and simulation in pediatric congenital heart surgery. This research is the first to evaluate the potential cost-effectiveness of 3D anatomic models with the intent to guide surgeons and decision makers on its use. Method: A decision tree and subsequent Markov model w...

Objective: Cost-of-illness studies in Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) have mainly been limited to hospitalizations. This is the first paper to provide a comprehensive overview from a societal perspective including inpatient and outpatient medical costs, and absenteeism- and unemployment-related societal costs. Methods: A retrospective longitu...

Background Congenital heart disease (CHD) entails a broad spectrum of malformations with various degrees of severity and prognosis. Consequently, new and specific healthcare needs are emerging, requiring responsive healthcare provision. Research on this matter is predominantly performed on population-based databases, to inform clinicians, researche...

Background: The clinical and economic burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus on society is rising. Effective and efficient preventive measures may stop the increasing prevalence, given that type 2 diabetes mellitus is mainly a lifestyle-driven disease. The Feel4Diabetes-study aimed to tackle unhealthy lifestyle (unhealthy diet, lack of physical activi...

The optimal management of patients with oligorecurrent prostate cancer (PCa) is unknown. There is growing interest in metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) for this population. The objective was to assess cost-utility from a Belgian healthcare payer’s perspective of MDT and delayed androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in comparison with surveillance and...

Background The growing adult congenital heart disease (CHD) population requires efficient healthcare organisation. It has been suggested that clinically appropriate care be provided for individual patients on the least complex level possible, in order to alleviate saturation of special care programmes. Methods Semi-structured interviews with 10 ge...

Background As a result of medical advances, the adult congenital heart disease population is rapidly expanding. Nonetheless, most patients remain prone to increased morbidity and mortality. Therefore, long-term medical resource use is required. This systematic review aims to present the trends over the past decades of medical resource utilization i...

Aims To evaluate and summarise current evidence on the relationship between the patient‐nurse ratio staffing method and nurse employee outcomes. Background Evidence‐based decision‐making linking nurse staffing with staff‐related outcomes is a much needed research area. Although multiple studies have investigated this phenomenon, the evidence is mi...

Objectives:: The recent trend to optimize the efficiency of health-care systems requires objective clinical and economic data. European data on the cost of surgical procedures to repair or palliate congenital heart disease in pediatric patients are lacking. Methods:: A single-center study was conducted. Bootstrap analysis of variance and bootstr...

Burn-out is een vaak voorkomend syndroom bij professionele hulpverleners en met name arts-specialisten in opleiding zijn een kwetsbare groep. Preventieve maatregelen worden tot heden voornamelijk toegespitst op het individu, terwijl werk-organisatorische maatregelen nog vaak achterwege blijven. Deze studie bevroeg arts-specialisten in opleiding wel...

Previous research has shown that residents are at risk for developing burnout. Most burnout measures focus on individual risk factors, although work-organizational-focused measures might be beneficial as well. This study analyzed the relative importance of positive and negative work-organizational stressors, according to residents themselves, with...