People in Transition

Biannual newsletter of the Population

Research Centre (PRC),

Faculty of Spatial Sciences,

University of Groningen,

The Netherlands

No.20 December 2014

Editor: Sanne Visser

The PRC is an internationally oriented

demographic research and training

institute. Its focus is on “people

behind population figures”.

People in Transition reports about

research and training activities of the

PRC. An electronic version is available

at: www.rug.nl/prc.

To be included in our mailing list,

please email Sanne Visser

(s.s.visser@rug.nl)

Or write to:

PRC Newsletter,

Department of Demography,

Faculty of Spatial Sciences,

University of Groningen,

P.O. Box 800,

9700 AV Groningen,

The Netherlands

Tel: + 31 50 363 4421

Fax: + 31 50 363 3901

Colophon

The PRC logo: humans developing in a

changing, multidimensional context.

Contents

Editorial

Hinke Haisma: NICHE project

Workshop on systematic review and

meta-analysis

Master Programme: Population

Studies

Announcements, visitors,

publications, short courses, external activities and PRC news

Dear colleagues, Welcome to this new PRC Newsletter! Although the end of 2014 is approaching, we are still in the middle of our academic year. After a short break we will start fresh in 2015, with current and new research and exciting and challenging education.

The new academic season has started and we are happy to announce the arrival of four new PhD researchers, one new postdoc and a new group of master’s students. We also said goodbye to several staff members, but we will always remember their valuable contribution to our scientific programme.

In this newsletter, Hinke Haisma shares information about the NICHE project, a project which aims to increase the training capacity for health research on improving access to health services as well as the quality of such services. She highlights the goals, success and challenges of this programme and shares her experiences with the project.

Next we share news about a workshop on systematic reviews, jointly organized by our department and Manipal University, India. Several of our researchers were involved in the workshop and it proved to be a great success.

Besides our research programme, we are also working hard to educate students in the field of population research in our Master’s in Population Studies programme. We are always looking to bring in new blood for our master’s programme, and more information about the programme can be found in this newsletter.

In the last few pages of the newsletter, you will find as usual details about our publications, presentations and other activities as well as short news items.

For more news, please visit our website http://www.rug.nl/research/ursi/prc/ or follow us on Facebook: Population Research Centre Groningen.

We wish you wonderful Christmas holidays and a happy, healthy and successful 2015!

Kind regards,

Also on behalf of Clara Mulder (Head of the PRC)

Sanne Visser

Newsletter of the Population Research Centre, Groningen

December 2014 Issue No. 20

Editorial

People in Transition

PRC ‘heidag’ in July: after a long day discussing research, we

took a boat trip trough the canals of Groningen

Issue No. 20 People in Transition

NICHE project “Expanding health research training capacity for improved

access to and quality of health services”

Hinke Haisma

In 2010, a consortium comprising Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Tanzania, the

Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, and the Population Research Centre of

the University of Groningen obtained funding (€8 million in total) for a NICHE

project whose aims are to increase the training capacity for health research on

improving access to health services as well as the quality of such services. Fund-

ing was provided by the Dutch government and is under the administration of

the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education

(Nuffic).

The ultimate aim of NICHE, an acronym for ‘Netherlands Initiative for Capacity

development in Higher Education’, is to contribute to economic development

and poverty reduction. Our NICHE project in Tanzania has four objectives: (1) to

develop a Master’s in Public Health Research programme, including training in

soft skills; (2) to improve skills for data analysis using existing data, most of which concerns the demographic surveillance system

data; (3) to increase the capacity for research synthesis in order to inform policy; and (4) institutional development, including a

performance management system.

The management team, which is responsible for the coordination of the project, comprises two representatives from each of the

participating organisations. From Groningen are Erik Haarbrink, from the Department of Research & Valorisation, and me. As the

project leader, I am responsible for the activities carried out by the University of Groningen. Other PRC colleagues in the project

include Inge Hutter who is a member of the supervisory board of the project and also involved in training activities related to the

translation of research into policy. Ajay Bailey is setting up a qualitative research course within the Master’s of Public Health Re-

search programme that is being developed at Mandela University in Arusha, and training IHI staff to become trainers. Pieter Boele

from Globalisation Studies Groningen is involved in academic writing courses and he mentors IHI staff members as well. Clara

Mulder and Leo van Wissen are supervising individual IHI researchers on the use of the demographic surveillance system data.

An important part of the project is the synthesis of research on the implications of the epidemiologic transition for the community,

health system, and policy in Tanzania. Three PhD students are currently engaged in different components of this research synthe-

sis. One of them is Emmy Metta who is working on health seeking behaviour in the context of the epidemiologic transition. She will

receive a PhD degree from the University of Groningen and is under the supervision of Ajay and myself. Two other PhD candidates

are working on the epidemiology of non-communicable diseases and the epidemiologic transition from a health system perspec-

tive. Their PhD degree will be conferred by the VU Amsterdam. All three PhD students have published a joint paper (Metta et al.,

2014a), and Emmy has published another paper (Metta et al., 2014b) with two more in the pipeline.

Translation of these research findings into policy actions is another important aim of the NICHE project, and during the course of

the project a new thematic group on policy translation was set up within IHI. This group will be especially important in the final

phase of the project when we develop a strategy for the use of research findings in policy development.

While the NICHE project has been and continues to be an interesting project to work on, it has not always been easy. Working with

IHI in Tanzania is a great opportunity and I already knew of the organisation from my master’s studies in human nutrition in Wa-

geningen. It has also been a good opportunity for me to collaborate more closely with the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam,

where I teach nutrition in their master’s ‘International Course on Health Development’ and ‘International Health’ and supervise

master’s students working on their thesis. It has been quite a challenge to work in a NUFFIC-funded consortium. Although clear

endpoints were set for the project, changes in IHI’s strategic plan meant that priorities at the host institute were modified in the

course of the project – a situation which introduced new dynamics.

People in Transition Issue No. 20

Changes in organisational structure and staff posed a further challenge to the implementation of

the project. Personally, it has been a learning process working as a project leader in an interna-

tional and interdisciplinary team of researchers from academic and NGO backgrounds. It has also

given me the opportunity to work beyond the boundaries of my academic work. I was also a fa-

cilitator in a course teaching soft skills to scientists. My contribution was mostly on intercultural

communication using Hofstede's synthetic cultures, and it has been really rewarding to see how

this has trickled down to the researchers’ behaviour and it remains relevant in their daily work.

And finally, I have enjoyed, and still enjoy supervising, together with Ajay Bailey, Emmy Metta in

her PhD research.

http://www.globalhealthaction.net/index.php/gha/article/view/23439

http://www.malariajournal.com/content/pdf/1475-2875-13-249.pdf

Introductory workshop on systematic review and meta -analysis

[27 th Oct-29 th Oct, Groningen]

Under the aegis of the memorandum of understanding signed between the University of Groningen and Manipal University, India,

to extend the collaboration between the two universities, the Population Research Centre of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, Univer-

sity of Groningen (Dr Shirish Darak and Dr Ajay Bailey), organized a workshop to sensitize researchers to approaches in systematic

review and meta-analysis.

The three-day workshop was conducted at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, from 27 to 29 October 2014 and

was facilitated by Prof. Sreekumaran Nair, Dr. TMA Pai Endowment Chair in Systematic Review and Evidence-Based Public Health,

Manipal University. The workshop was attended by an enthusiastic group of researchers from different faculties of the University of

Groningen. The 15 participants who attended the workshop were mostly PhD researchers and members of the Faculty of Spatial

Sciences (from the departments of demography, planning, and cultural geography); University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG,

from the Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics); and the Faculty of Arts.

The workshop was participatory in nature and participants not only learned about the method of conducting systematic review and

its role in generating evidence for policies and programmes but also worked in groups to develop protocols for conducting a sys-

tematic review on the topic of their interest. This workshop with a multidisciplinary audience has certainly helped participants to

appreciate the applicability of this method beyond clinical and epidemiological research into other research disciplines within the

social sciences.

The workshop was funded by the Urban and Regional Studies Institute of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences and the International Rela-

tions Office (India initiative) of the University of Groningen.

Issue No. 20 People in Transition

Master Programme: Population Studies

Coordinator Fanny Janssen

For our Master Population Studies we are looking for motivated students, who would like to learn about and discuss demographic

issues in a small-scale, international, multi-disciplinary and scientific setting!

Already for more than 10 years we educate and share our expertise with master students in the field of demography and popula-

tion studies, with much enthusiasm and dedication and our programme has been evaluated very well. Last year’s students graded

our programme on average with a 8.5 out of 10, and in addition our Master’s degree programme has been ranked second among

all Master’s degree programmes in Geography and Planning and related subjects in the Netherlands.

The QANU (Quality Assurance Netherlands Universities) praised our well-defined and distinct profile, and the extent to which re-

search permeates the curriculum.

The objective of our international one-year MSc programme in Population Studies is to train young professionals in the theories,

methods and skills required to comprehend population dynamics. We regard the study of demographic behaviour of people, in

terms of their life events, e.g. birth, marriage, divorce, health, migration, and death, essential to understanding population dynam-

ics. The master programme therefore focuses on these demographic events, on how decision-making regarding these life events

(e.g. its timing) is influenced by the historical, economic, societal, cultural, and medical context, and on how these demographic

events have an impact on population-level trends.

Our students learn about:

› theories on individual decision-making behind demographic life events

› sources of demographic data, questionnaire construction and interviews

› methods and techniques to analyze demographic data: life table, population projections, survey analysis, in-depth interviews,

focus group discussion and observation

› population policies and interventions and their link to research

The programme consists of a combination of analytical and social demography, and we teach both quantitative and qualitative

research methods. We focus strongly on academic skills and our education is heavily research-driven. In our master programme

we work closely together with the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute in The Hague, the Netherlands.

To get an impression of the Master Population Studies and the population issues covered please visit our Webclass Population

Studies. Go to www.rug.nl/nestor and log in with username frw-Webclasspopstudies and password webpopst2014. More infor-

mation can be found on our website: http://www.rug.nl/masters/population-studies/#int, including a short video on our master

programme.

In case of additional questions on the programme please contact the master coordinator Fanny Janssen (f.janssen@rug.nl).

People in Transition Issue No. 20

Recent publications

De Beer, J. and F. Janssen (2014) The NIDI mortality model. A new model to describe the age pattern of mortality. NIDI Working Paper no. 2014/7. The Hague: NIDI. Elshof, H., Van Wissen, L., & Mulder, C.H. (2014). The self-reinforcing effects of population decline: An analysis of differences in moving behaviour between rural neighbourhoods with declining and stable populations. Journal of Rural Studies, 36, 285-299.

Elshof, H., and L. van Wissen (2014) Basisscholen Noord-Nederland onder druk. Demos, 30(7), 4-7.

Herbers, D.J., Mulder, C.H., and Mòdenes, J.A. (online first) Moving Out of Home Ownership in Later Life: The Influence of the Family and Housing Careers. Housing Studies. DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2014.923090.

Janssen, F. and E. Hak (2014) Modelling population-level drug use with demographic and geographic approaches and techniques. Advances in Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety, 3(3), 158: 1-3. Janssen, F. (2014) Voorspelling van levensverwachting kan beter. Tijdschrift voor Gerontologie en Geriatrie 45(4), 183-187. Janssen, F., N. Smidt, N. Steverink (2014) HAPS seminar: The social context of healthy ageing. Tijdschrift voor Gerontologie en Geriatrie, 45(5), 305-308.

Kibele, E. U. B., Klüsener, S. and Scholz, R. D. (2014). Regional

mortality disparities in Germany: long-term dynamics and

possible determinants. MPIDR Working Paper WP-2014-009.

Rostock: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.

Latten, J.J., and Mulder, C.H. (2013) Partner relationships in the Netherlands: new manifestations of the Second Demographic Transition. Genus, 69(3), 103-121.

Metta, E., Haisma, H., Kessy, F., Hutter, I., and Bailey, A. (2014) 'We have become doctors for ourselves': motives for malaria self-care among adults in southeastern Tanzania. Malaria Journal, doi:10.1186/1475-2875-13-249.

Mulder, C.H., & Malmberg, G. (2014). Local ties and family migration. Environment and Planning A, 46(9), 2195-2211.

Muszyńska M., A. Fihel and F. Janssen (2014) Role of smoking in the regional variation in mortality in Poland. Addiction, 109(11), 1931-1941.

Nanninga, C.S., L. Meijering, M.C. Schönherr, K. Postema & A.T.

Lettinga (2014). Place attachment in stroke rehabilitation: a

transdisciplinary encounter between cultural geography,

environmental psychology and rehabilitation

medicine. Disability & Rehabilitation. doi: 10.3109/ 09638288.

2014.955136.

Rubin, O., Mulder, C.H., & L. Bertolini (2014). The determinants

of mode choice for family visit - Evidence from Dutch Panel

Data. Journal of Transport Geography, 38(6), 137-147.

van der Pers, M. , Clara H. Mulder and Nardi Steverink. (Online First). Geographic Proximity of Adult Children and the Well-Being of Older Persons . Research on Aging. doi:10.1177/0164027514545482

Van der Stegen, R.H.M., Koren, L.G.H., Harteloh, P.P.M., Kardaun, W.P.F., and Janssen, F. (2014). A Novel Time Series Approach to Bridge Coding Changes with a Consistent Solution Across Causes of Death. European Journal of Population, 30(3), 317-335.

The first workshop on the ORA Plus project ‘PartnerLife: Partner

relationships, residential relocations and housing in the life

course' took place in Groningen, 16-17 October. PartnerLife is

conducted by an international team led by Clara Mulder (PRC),

Michael Wagner (University of Cologne) and Hill Kulu (University

of Liverpool).

On November 3rd Inge Hutter, Liesbeth de Wit, Myriam

Hemsteede and Christine Fenenga organized a workshop for

PRC-researchers that use a Participatory Action Approach (PAA)

to their research. The aim of the day was to map how different

researchers use the PAA and to make a first step towards a

common understanding and future perspectives of the PAA

used within the PRC.

Workshops

External activities

Presentations

May - Fanny Janssen was interviewed by the university maga-

zine “Universiteitskrant” of the University of Groningen about

obtaining the prestigious VIDI research grant. See http://

www.ukrant.nl/nieuws/zeven-vidis-voor-rug-onderzoekers.

May - Fanny Janssen was interviewed by Elsevier on her VIDI

research “Smoking, alcohol and obesity - ingredients for im-

proved and robust mortality projections”.

May - Hinke Haisma was examiner at DrPH viva of Kenda Cun-

ningham at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medi-

cine for her thesis on "Maternal empowerment, childcare prac-

tices, and child nutrition in rural Nepal".

June - Hinke Haisma was consultant for the Ifakara Health In-

stitute, Tanzania (NICHE project), during a workshop on the

development of a new research synthesis and policy transla-

tion.

Sept - Fanny Janssen was interviewed live by Radio 2 (Gijs 2.0)

about the consequences of the likely increase in the world pop-

ulation to 12 billion inhabitants. See http://gijs.kro.nl/

seizoenen/2014/afleveringen/19-09-2014/fragmenten/

enorme_bevolkinsgroei_met_vernuft_wel_op_te_vangen

Education

Elshof, H. The influence of population decline on social capital

and social cohesion. Conferene of Regional Studies Association

(RSA) ,Izmir, 15-18 June.

Elshof, H. The effect of primary school closure on the locational

choice of families with children in a declining rural area. Con-

ference International Geographical Union (IGU), Krakow, 18-22

August .

Haisma, H.H. and Yousefzadeh, S. A multi-dimensional meas-

ure of child growth. Child Health group at TNO Healthy Living,

Leiden, 22nd of September.

Haisma, H.H. Toward a multi-dimensional measure of child

growth. Introduction to Nutrition & Health in Developing coun-

tries for the education programme Nutrition and Health at Wa-

geningen University (invited lecture), 9th of October.

Janssen, F. Guest lecture on “Past and future mortality in Eu-

rope” within the lecture series European Population Issues, In-

terface Demography, Free University Brussels (Belgium), 11th

November 2014 .

Janssen, F. Seminar Including the smoking epidemic in mortali-

ty projections, Actuarial Department University of Amsterdam,

Amsterdam (the Netherlands) (invited speaker), 7th of Novem-

ber 2014 .

Janssen, F. New approaches for modelling population level

drug use with demographic and geographic techniques (invited

speaker educational session), EURODURG 2014 (drug utiliza-

tion research), Groningen (the Netherlands), August 2014.

Janssen, F. Effect van epidemiologische ontwikkelingen op de

levensverwachting (invited speaker). Actuarial seminar of

RGA – International Reinsurance Company Ltd, Amsterdam

(the Netherlands), June 2014

Kibele, E. Twee unieke voorbeelden van demografisch gezond-

heidsonderzoek op basis van CBS microdata. CBS microdatage-

bruikersmiddag, The Hague, 6 November

Yousefzadeh, S. Proposing a multidimensional, multilevel ap-

proach to define child growth. United Nations University/

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance International con-

ference on Innovation & Governance in Development, Maas-

tricht, 26th of November.

Yousefzadeh, S. Proposing a multidimensional, multilevel ap-

proach to define child growth. International Institute of Social

Studies,The Hague, 11th of December.

Fanny Janssen was voted Lecturer of the Year in the Faculty of

Spatial Sciences. The jury was impressed by her enthusiastic style

of teaching, her patience and great didactic skills.

10 students from different countries and different disciplines

started the Master Population Studies in September.

From September onwards we hosted two external and interna-

tional participants for the short course Qualitative Research De-

sign in Population Studies and Health.

In November three international mid-career professionals start-

ed the short course in Demographic Methods and Analysis.

From September 2014 onwards two students (one from the

Netherlands, one from Spain) started the double degree Master

in Social Demography which combines the Master of Research in

Sociology & Demography (UPF) and our Master in Population

Studies.

In January or February 2015 the PRC and NIDI will provide the

second edition of the Dutch short course in “Demografische

maten, methoden en bevolkingsprognose”. See

http://www.rug.nl/research/ursi/prc/education/korte-cursus.

Thomas J. Cooke (University of Connecticut) is a visiting pro-

fessor to PRC on a Fulbright scholarship from August 2014 till

January 2015. He works with Clara Mulder on a paper on mi-

gration of divorced parents.

PRC News

Visitors

Sept - Fanny Janssen was interviewed for the website of the

University of Groningen (http://www.rug.nl/news-and-

events/people-perspectives/tales-of-talent/fanny-janssen) and

the international newsletter of the University of Groningen

Worldwide (www.rug.nl/worldwide)

Oct - Fanny Janssen appeared on the frontpage of the website

of the University of Groningen as scientist in focus:

http://www.rug.nl/news-and-events/people-

perspectives/scientists-in-focus/fjanssen

Oct - Fanny Janssen appeared in a video on her VIDI research

on Unifocus, the University of Groningen's online video maga-

zine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embe

dded&v=1u9epPlWyVo

Oct - Miryam Hemsteede was one of the supervisors at a

course on Facilitating Multi Stakeholder processes, at the Cen-

tre for Development Innovation at Wageningen University and

Research.

The Head of the PRC, Prof Clara Mulder has been appointed as

Director of the Graduate School Spatial Sciences, for a period

of 3 years from September 2014. The Graduate School of our

Faculty has more than 100 PhD researchers .

As of September 1, Fanny Janssen has a secondment for 0.2

fte at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute,

The Hague, the Netherlands.

Stiny Tiggelaar, our long-time office manager and admissions

officer, has left the PRC due to the university-wide reorganisa-

tion of support staff. She is now based in the Academy Building

of the University of Groningen and coordinates the admissions

procedure for international students. Stiny has been with the

PRC from the very beginning and we all miss her cheerful per-

sonality. Since November 1st the department is supported by

our office managers Mirjam Wempe and Eliza van der Ploeg.

Postdoctoral researcher Michael Thomas has started working

with Clara Mulder on the ORA Plus project 'PartnerLife: Partner

relationships, residential relocations and housing in the life

course.'

Sergi Trias Llimós and Nikoletta Vidra have begun their PhD re-

search within Fanny Janssen's VIDI project 'Smoking, alcohol and

obesity - ingredients for improved and robust mortality projec-

tions’ since 1 September

Nikhil Pazhoothundathil Narayanan Nair joined our department

as a PhD researcher in September. His research is on the aspects

of ‘home-making’, place attachment and belongingness of older

adults in institutional care settings in India and the Netherlands.

His supervisors are Prof. Inge Hutter, Dr Ajay Bailey and Dr Lekha

Subaiya.

In October we said goodbye to Mirjam Klaassens who was a post

-doc at our department. She has been involved in research and

has taught the topic ‘Healthy Ageing’. We thank her for her con-

tribution to the PRC and wish her the very best in her career.

At the end of October we launched the new website of the net-

work Healthy Ageing, Population and Society: http://

www.rug.nl/research/healthy-ageing/population-society/.

In November we bid farewell to Shirish Darak. He received his

MSc and PhD degrees from the PRC, and has worked here as an

assistant professor for the past 14 months. We thank him for his

contribution to the PRC and wish him well in his future under-

takings.

Katharina Wolf joined the PRC in November. She is doing a com-

bined PhD at the PRC and at the Max Planck Institute for Demo-

graphic Research in Rostock. Her research is on migrant fertility

and she is supervised by Clara Mulder and Michaela Kreyenfeld .

On 3 November, Ekaterina Ogurtsova defended her dissertation

titled ‘Estimating transition rates for multistate models from

panel data and repeated cross-sections’. Her promotors were

Prof. Frans Willekens and Dr Jutta Gampe.

Announcements

The 7th Dutch Demography Day took take place on the 10th of

December in Utrecht.

In July 2015 Eva Kibele will co-organize the Summer School on

Healthy Ageing in Groningen. The main goal of the Healthy

Ageing Summer School is that students get insights into healthy

ageing obtained by different disciplines (including social scien-

ces, demography, biomedical sciences, and public health), ran-

ging from cell to society. More information can be found on

http://www.rug.nl/research/gradschool-

medicalsciences/summerschools/healthyageing/