Publications
Behaviour-based Personalisation in Health Insurance: a Sociology of a not-yet Market KU Leuven
This PhD research is part of the Postgenomic Solidarity Odyseuss project and investigates how insurance markets deal with the 'Big Data Revolution'. Big Data is believed to be of large relevance for insurance markets because Big Data might give more knowledge of the insured risks, allow insurers to know their customers better and provide lifestyle tools to incentivize their customers to become less risky. Insurers can, however, not just 'apply' ...
Comparative research in sociology of health and illness with multilevel models: issues and promises University of Antwerp
Stress Process Approach in the Sociology of Mental Health: Sociological Study of Stress (Original language: Persian) Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Comparative mental health sociology: in between psychiatric epidemiology and theories of societal discontent Ghent University
Interventions to increase the use of electronic health information by health care practitioners to improve clinical practice and patient outcomes KU Leuven
BackgroundThere is a large volume of health information available, and, if applied in clinical practice, may contribute to effective patient care. Despite an abundance of information, sub-optimal care is common. Many factors influence practitioners’ use of health information, and format (electronic or other) may be one such factor.ObjectivesTo assess the effects of interventions aimed at improving or increasing healthcare practitioners’ use of ...
The importance of economic, social and cultural capital in understanding health inequalities: using a Bourdieu-based approach in research on physical and mental health perceptions Ghent University
In this article we adopt a Bourdieu-based approach to study social inequalities in perceptions of mental and physical health. Most research takes into account the impact of economic or social capital on health inequalities. Bourdieu, however, distinguishes between three forms of capital that can determine peoples' social position: economic, social and cultural capital. Health research examining the effects of cultural capital is scarce. By ...
Gender differences in mental health problems among adolescents and the role of social support: results from the Belgian health interview surveys 2008 and 2013 Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Background: To investigate how social support relates to mental health problems for Belgian late adolescents and young adults 15-25 years of age. Additionally, we examine changes in mental health problems between 2008 and 2013 and investigate gender differences. Methods: Multivariate analysis of variance was used to investigate (1) psychological distress, (2) anxiety and (3) depression among 713 boys and 720 girls taken from two successive ...
Exploration of the functions of health impact assessment in real-world policymaking in the field of social health inequality Vrije Universiteit Brussel
With the implementation of health impact assessment (HIA)'s conceptual model into real-world policymaking, a number of fundamental issues arise concerning its decision-support function. Rooted in a rational vision of the decision-making process, focus regarding both conceptualisation and evaluation has been mainly on the function of instrumental policy-learning. However, in the field of social health inequalities, this function is strongly ...
Reconsidering inequalities in preventive health care: an application of cultural health capital theory and the life-course perspective to the take-up of mammography screening KU Leuven University of Antwerp Ghent University
While there are abundant descriptions of socioeconomic inequalities in preventive health care, knowledge about the true mechanisms is still lacking. Recently, the role of cultural health capital in preventive health-care inequalities has been discussed theoretically. Given substantial analogies, we explore how our understanding of cultural health capital and preventive health-care inequalities can be advanced by applying the theoretical ...