Erasmus University Rotterdam

Viral pneumonia in older adults: from immunosenescence and chronic disease to vaccine-modifiable risk

In older adults, respiratory viral infections should not be viewed solely as isolated acute events, but as part of a broader vaccine-modifiable clinical burden shaped by immunosenescence, multimorbidity and frailty. These interconnected factors increase susceptibility to respirat...

International Modified Delphi Consensus on Assessment and Management of Covert Brain Infarction

BackgroundCovert brain infarction (CBI) is a frequent incidental neuroradiological finding increasingly recognized as clinically relevant due to its association with stroke, cognitive decline, and other adverse outcomes. However, substantial uncertainty remains regarding its opti...

Radiologist and AI performance in detecting mucus plugs on chest CT

Abstract Objectives To compare automated mucus plug detection with radiologist evaluation, assess AI-assisted detection, and examine associations of algorithm-derived airway obstruction burden with COPD severity. Materials and methods This retrospective analysis included 278 COPD...

What behavioural science entails: the C-frame as a successor to the ‘personal responsibility’ policy paradigm

Behavioural science is much more than a set of techniques to influence behaviour. It represents a perspective on social reality – a perspective that is no less important than the economic or legal perspective. In this contribution, I will explain the profound consequences of taki...

Urban–rural disparities in care deficit among functionally impaired older adults in China: prevalence gaps and shared determinants, 2013–2020

Global population aging highlights equitable elder care as a crucial challenge. China’s rapid aging amid a marked urban-rural divide offers a critical context to examine structural disparities in care deficits. This study aims to quantify urban-rural disparities in care-deficit p...

The influence of refugees’ housing location on their social contacts: Evidence from a national quasi-experiment

In fleeing from war and persecution, refugees lose important social contacts from their home country and need to develop new social networks in their host country. A common conjecture is that the region where refugees settle has important influences on whether and with whom refug...

The Power of Data: Assessing Primary Care Performance Using Routinely Collected Emergency Department Data

This paper develops and validates an approach to assess the impact of individual primary care practices (PCPs) on demand for emergency department (ED) services. Using operational data from two geographically adjacent EDs in England, we focus on attendances for ambulatory care-sen...

Skill maintenance in neurosurgery: lessons from high-reliability professions and a plea to prioritize psychomotor skill retention, a mini-review

Microsurgical procedures in neurosurgery are characterized by steep learning curves, exceptional technical complexity, and limited tolerance for error. While considerable research has focused on microsurgical skill acquisition and the development of training models, substantially...

“In Sickness and in Health”: Towards a Critical Phenomenology of Sickness in Situation

In this paper, I will investigate “sickness in situation” using a critical phenomenological approach together with two concepts from disability studies—normate and misfit. I will scrutinize the famous distinction that has been made in the phenomenology of illness tradition betwee...

Re-weaving threads for a circular economy: Spatio-temporal dynamics of the textile and clothing sector in Rotterdam

The ambition of achieving a circular economy (CE) brings with it renewed challenges in implementing systemic change in a context reluctant to abandon ‘business as usual’, but in which the urgency to transform linear production patterns into circular ones grows ever stronger. Taki...

Data is not Labor: A reply to Kim and Vincent

Abstract In a recent article in this journal, Kim and Vincent (2026) argue that the everyday interactions of ordinary users with digital platforms like Facebook, Google, and Amazon involve data-producing labor . I argue that Kim and Vincent’s view is either independently implausi...

Genome-wide analysis of social behaviour across social domains, reporters and developmental stages: a meta-regression approach

Abstract Social behaviour is a heritable trait linked to well-being and mental health, yet it varies across social context, including social domains, informants and development, which may shape its underlying genomic architecture. Here, we conducted a genome-wide meta-regression...

Relationship Breaker? Unplanned Births and Relationship Dissolution

This study explores the association between unplanned pregnancies resulting in a birth and relationship dissolution in the Netherlands. Using prospective, population-based birth cohort data from Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands, it finds that couples with an...

Navigating Stigma and Support: Realist Evaluation of Support for Migrant Informal Caregivers of Loved Ones with Mental Illness

Abstract ‘They Are Not Mental?!’ (TANM) is a peer educational intervention aimed at supporting migrant informal caregivers of people with mental illness. In the short term, the intervention focuses on promoting openness about mental health, increasing understanding of mental illn...

Two-year impact of a bundled payment program for total hip or knee replacement in the Netherlands: a difference-in-differences analysis

Abstract Background In 2018, a Dutch health insurer introduced a bundled payment program for total hip or knee replacement (THKR). Participating hospitals shared in savings and losses per episode, covering all THKR-related hospital care, including complications within one year af...

Supportive communities: how health and welfare contexts shape neighbor relationships across 29 countries with unequal public healthcare resources

Abstract This study investigates how personal health status and multiple forms of disadvantages are associated with instrumental and emotional relationships with neighbors across 29 countries. Using data from the International Social Survey Program and the Global Health Observato...

Langerhans cells as targets of rabies virus immune evasion

Rabies virus (RABV) is a neurotropic virus of the genus Lyssavirus that causes a nearly always fatal encephalitis in humans once it reaches the central nervous system. Dog bites are a major transmission route of RABV, and following superficial skin exposure, RABV first encounters...

The Effect of BMI on the Image Quality of CTA Scans for DIEP Flap Breast Reconstruction

Background: Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) imaging is currently the gold standard for the preoperative planning of deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap breast reconstruction. Limited research has been performed on the effect of body mass index (BMI) on CTA image...

Did the Tiger Grow Fierce Teeth? An Examination of the Use of Criminal Sanctions for Environmental Pollution in China

ABSTRACT Despite an extensive body of environmental law and policy, China's environmental law has long been dubbed a “paper tiger” owning to persistent enforcement failures. Over the past decade, legislative and judicial reforms have substantially strengthened the criminal enforc...

Effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists on body weight and cardiovascular outcomes: a review

Obesity is a rapidly increasing global health challenge that is strongly linked to the cardiorenometabolic syndrome, cardiovascular morbidity, and mortality. Lifestyle interventions remain the cornerstone of treatment, but average long-term weight loss is modest and durable weigh...