The success of economic policies in the Netherlands with regard to enhancing job growth and bringing down unemployment has attracted international attention, especially against the background of persistent high unemployment in many continental European countries. The paper considers the role of Dutch industrial relations, and in particular trade unions, in the turnaround from the ‘Dutch disease...

BACKGROUND In many European countries, vaccinations are offered to the elderly. Expanding the programme to include routine vaccination against pneumococcal disease, herpes zoster, and pertussis, for example, could reduce disease burden amongst the growing population of persons aged 50 years and older. Since most countries involve general practitioners (GPs) in the programmes, the potential succ...

The nationwide screening service for breast cancer, known as BOB from the initials of the Dutch title (Bevolkingonderzoek op Borstkanker) has been set up by the Dutch government for asymptomatic women between 50 and 75 years of age. The primary test offered is X-ray mammography, aimed at early detection of breast cancer in order to reduce the mortality from this disease. The examinations are pe...

OBJECTIVE Infantile Pompe's disease is a lethal cardiac and muscular disorder. Current developments toward enzyme replacement therapy are promising. The aim of our study is to delineate the natural course of the disease to verify endpoints of clinical studies. METHODS A total of 20 infantile patients diagnosed by the collaborative Dutch centers and 133 cases reported in literature were includ...

In this review we discuss cardiovascular mortality, incidence and prevalence of heart disease, and cardiac interventions and surgery in the Netherlands. We combined most recently available data from various Dutch cardiovascular registries, Dutch Hospital Data (LMR), Statistics Netherlands (CBS), and population-based cohort studies, to provide a broad quantitative update. The absolute number of ...

AIMS To evaluate ethnic differences in the prevalence of respiratory and skin symptoms in the first two years of life. METHODS A total of 4146 children participated in the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) study. Parents completed questionnaires on respiratory and skin symptoms, ethnic background, and other potential confounders during pregnancy, and at 3 months, 1 y...

OBJECTIVES To assess work disability and variables associated with work disability among Dutch patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS A questionnaire on working status was filled out by 296 patients of working age. Employment and work disability rates adjusted for age and sex from the Dutch population were determined using indirect standardization. Cox proportional hazard analysis w...

The association of HLA class II phenotype with the development of insulin-dependent (Type 1) diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is well established but the contribution of the various HLA-DR and -DQ alleles and haplotypes to disease predisposition is not fully understood. We have determined haplotype and genotype odds ratios, and further employed multivariate tree analysis to explore the contribution of ...