Background: The built environment is increasingly recognized as a determinant for health and health behaviors. Existing evidence regarding the relationship between environment and health (behaviors) is varying in significance and magnitude, and more high-quality longitudinal studies are needed. The aim …

This chapter provides insights into the complex and adaptive nature of systems and illustrates key characteristics of such systems. These contribute to an understanding of the challenges in health promotion and imply a need for more context-specific research to evaluate the health promotion interventions. …

The aim of this study was to explore effects of a major urban reconstruction on physical activity (PA) behavior by comparing PA intensity hotspots before and after the tunneling of a highway with a new infrastructure prioritized for walking and cycling. In total, 126 individuals participated before and …

The current article presents an in-depth case study as part of a health impact assessment (HIA) on the effects of a major integrative infrastructural urban redesign project in Maastricht on physical activity and health; the Green Carpet project. In this 1.2 billion euro reconstruction project, a highway …

The number of children dealing with behavioural problems is increasing. A major challenge in many health-supportive programmes is the recruitment and retention of these children. In the current study, Sport Mix Club (SMC), an approach to enhance socioemotional disorders of 4- to 12-year-old children …

Background: In the city of Maastricht in the Netherlands, a highway crossing several deprived neighborhoods was tunneled in 2016. The vacant space on top of this tunnel was redesigned and prioritized for pedestrians and cyclists. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of this major infrastructural …

Background As many children do not meet the recommended daily physical activity (PA) levels, more research is needed towards environmental determinants of children’s PA levels. The aims of this longitudinal study were to investigate whether the physical environment and parenting practices have an impact …

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the one- and two-year effectiveness of the KEIGAAF intervention, a school-based mutual adaptation intervention, on the BMI z-score (primary outcome), and energy balance-related behaviors (secondary outcomes) of children aged 7–10 years. A quasi-experimental …

This study explored associations between perceived neighborhood walkability and neighborhood-based physical activity (NB-PA) and assessed possible moderation effects of the amount of time spent in the home neighborhood and individual characteristics (i.e., educational level and health-related problems). …

School health promotion is advocated. Implementation studies on school health promotion are less often conducted as effectiveness studies and are mainly conducted conventionally by assessing fidelity of “one size fits all” interventions. However, interventions that allow for local adaptation are more …