PhD Conferral Mrs. Celeste E. van Rinsum, MSc.

Keywords: Obesity, lifestyle coaching, interventional study, behavioural change, implementation, health brokers

"Prevention and Treatment of Obesity; The Role of Lifestyle Coaches and Health Brokers"

The occurrence of overweight and obesity is increasing in all parts of the world, including the Netherlands. The complexity of obesity necessitates a combination of various strategies aimed at multiple health determinants to combat this problem. The studies constituting this dissertation focussed on solutions at different levels of prevention, ranging from universal prevention to care-related prevention. This study shows that lifestyle coaches carrying out the Coaching on Lifestyle (CooL) programme have proven to be useful in offering obesity-related care, particularly to adults with obesity. Health brokers have proven to be useful in bringing together stakeholders to deal with complex health problems such as obesity.