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The Sectorplan Hub for Prevention: Tackling Disparities Together

The promotion of public health is challenged by a complex interplay of socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental disparities. Ensuring equity in prevention is essential to achieve health and well-being for all.

The Sectorplan 'Accelerating on Health' addresses this challenge head-on. It funds thirty early-to-mid career academics from across all research schools within the Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences (FHML) of Maastricht University. Eighteen of them are affiliated with CAPHRI. They work across research lines and form a bridge between departments, including Epidemiology, Ethics and Society, Family Medicine, Health Promotion, Human Services Research, Rehabilitation, Social Medicine, Statistics and KEMTA (Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment).

As part of the Sectorplan, they form a local prevention community, linking research and education in various programs including BSc Health Sciences and Medicine, as well as MSc programs in areas such as Health Policy, Innovation and Management (HPIM), Epidemiology (EPI) and Health Promotion (HEP). By sharing knowledge, networking, and transferring expertise, they turn equity in prevention into a reality.

How do CAPHRI researchers contribute to the mission?

Researchers from CAPHRI that are involved in the Sectorplan contribute with a broad range of expertise, from methodology to implementation and everything in between.

The figure illustrates the research themes from CAPHRI affiliates, highlighting key areas of expertise to collectively contribute to improving population health by advancing innovative, evidence-informed healthcare systems.

The figure illustrates the research themes from CAPHRI affiliates, highlighting key areas of expertise to collectively contribute to improving population health by advancing innovative, evidence-informed healthcare systems. At the core is Prevention and Public Health, which focuses on promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing disease burden through research on a wide variety of topics healthy diets, promoting physical activity, improving sleep quality, and healthy aging, among others. The following quotes of researchers investigating these lifestyle factors show how they focus on socioeconomic inequalities. 

“My research improves understanding of how physical activity, sitting, and sleep relate to health as well as examining how socioeconomic and environmental determinants influence these behaviors.”

Annemarie Koster (department of Social Medicine)

“I integrate sustainable and personalized lifestyle support into oncological care, with particular attention to health literacy and socioeconomic disparities.”

Melissa Voorn (department of Rehabilitation)

Surrounding this core are several complementary research domains. Digital Health and Innovation investigates how digital technologies, related interventions, other innovations could help with improving health. Health Systems and Collaboration examines forms of integrated care, interprofessional collaboration, and building regional networks to improve coordination and effectiveness of prevention with care and societal systems. An example of intervention that falls under both these themes is the development of co-created lifestyle interventions for primary schools in the region.

“We implement context-sensitive, school-based prevention strategies in close collaboration with regional partners.”

Marla Hahnraths (department of Family Medicine)

Within the theme Health Technology Assessment, economic evaluation and decision-making is used to inform healthcare policy and resource allocation. This involves assessing the value of preventive interventions. To update current methods on economic evaluations a researcher explains how she contributes to this theme.

“I work on Health Technology Assessment methods for recognizing the value of prevention and estimating its uncertain benefits”

Sabine Grimm (department of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment)

Methods and Data Science strengthen the methodological foundations of research through approaches like longitudinal causal inference, prediction modeling and the use of real-world data. The focus of this theme is also on making complex methodological advancements accessible outside the research context. Two researchers from statistics and epidemiology departments explain in quotes how they work on these themes. 

“I develop causal inference methods to understand what works for whom in studies of socioeconomic health disparities.”

Lon Wen Wei (department of Statistics)

"I use prediction models taking into account care pathways, costs (in the broadest sense) and contextual factors. We use this to improve screening for skin cancer."

Audrey Meulendijks (department of Epidemiology)

Participatory and Qualitative Research are used by sectorplan researchers to get a deeper understanding of complex health systems through ethnography, co-design methodologies, realist evaluation, and science communication as summarized in two quotes by researchers. 

“I aim to make realist evaluation more accessible for researchers and students in order to study complex prevention programs in a meaningful and transferable way.”

Rowan Smeets (department of Health Services Research)

“I develop innovative approaches to citizen participation to enable co-production of knowledge about public health in urban environments.”

Mare Knibbe (department of Health, Ethics, and Society)

In the theme, Population and Global Health the focus is on public health challenges, ranging from epidemiology, infectious disease control, and urban health environments. Citizen science approaches are used to tackle Health Inequalities in Society and map social determinants of health. As quotes by Latifa, why we should incorporate citizens views in our research on prevention.

“I do what is needed and go the extra mile to involve those people in my work who feel judged, not heard, not seen, underrepresented and marginalized in society."

Latifa Abidi (department of Health Promotion)

Together, these themes highlight the interdisciplinary approach used by CAPHRI researchers to contribute to the Sectorplan's mission, vision, and strategy. This work is inherently collaborative: early-to-mid career researchers come together every two months for community meetings and are part of smaller peer development groups. This enables them to network, start new collaborations, and share experiences. More senior academics contribute through an advisory group and offer career guidance and inspiration during and beyond the community meetings. This fosters collaboration not only within CAPHRI but also with other research institutes that are part of FHML. Together, this multidisciplinary approach helps generate scientific knowledge and translate it into practice and education to support health equity.

How does this work lead to impact?

The CAPHRI affiliated researchers strive to make impact within and beyond the walls of academia. Their work reaches international scientists, practitioners, policymakers, and the public through news appearances, societal activities, reports, education, conferences, and peer-reviewed output. This breadth of output reflects the community's shared commitment to not only advancing knowledge but ensuring it reaches those who need it most. 

Important Output of CAPHRI affiliated Sectorplan researchers

Daily news
De Correspondent (2026). Hoe maak je gezondheidsverschillen kleiner? Vraag het aan de mensen die erdoor worden geraakt (How do you reduce health inequalities? Ask the people affected by them). Abidi, Latifa.
https://decorrespondent.nl/16740/hoe-maak-je-gezondheidsverschillen-kleiner-vraag-het-aan-de-mensen-die-erdoor-worden-geraakt/2cc2e4a9-476b-0cb8-0be2-d2db33a9ea8e

De Limburger (2026). Een uitdagende hobby is een goede manier om dementie te voorkomen (A challenging hobby is a good way to prevent dementia). Bruinsma, Jeroen. 
https://www.limburger.nl/regio/heerlen/heerlen/een-nieuwe-uitdagende-hobby-is-een-goede-manier-om-dementie-te-helpen-voorkomen-leerden-wetenschappers-jeroen-en-giselle-in-parkstad/128055801.html 

Societal Activity
Theatre Werkhuis Maastricht (2025). Van wie is het groen? (Whose green is it?) Knibbe, Mare.
https://vimeo.com/1120909653/4fb388848a?share=copy

World Café on Acute Care for Older Adults in Limburg (2025). A regional, multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange aimed at preventing acute crises and avoidable emergency admissions. Everink, Irma.

Multiple meetings in the care network of Elsloo (n.d.). An active and growing interprofessional network of medical and social professionals and citizens. Van Dijk, Anneke.

Reports
Van den Bulck Anne, et al. (2025). Samen werk maken van gezonde wijken. Lessen en inspiratie uit een casestudie naar zes integrale wijkaanpakken (Working together towards healthy neighbourhoods. Lessons and inspiration from a case study of six integrated neighbourhood approaches). Universiteit Maastricht, Zuyd, Limburg Meet (LIME).

World Health Organisation (2023). Physical activity measurement and surveillance in adults: report of a scoping and planning meeting. Koster, Annemarie.
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240095557

Meulendijks, Audrey (2026: in press). Perinatale uitkomsten in Limburg vergeleken met de rest van Nederland: De rol van maternale leefstijl en gezondheid in de periode 2019-2023 (Perinatal outcomes in Limburg compared to the rest of the Netherlands: The role of maternal lifestyle and health in the period 2019–2023).

Educational
Hands-on workshop equipping fellow researchers and students with knowledge and skills to apply realist evaluations. Smeets, Rowan.

Conferences
Ummels Darcy, et al. (2023). Implementatie van een chronisch pijnnetwerk in het Beweeghuisconcept (Implementation of a chronic pain network in the Beweeghuisconcept). Pa!n Congres, Veenendaal, the Netherlands.
https://pijnalliantieinnederland.nl/nieuws/pitches-pan-congres-zelfmanagement-en-leefstijl 

Hahnraths Marla. (2025). A symposium on implementation in a real-world context. ISBNPA, New Zealand.

Peer-Reviewed Publications
Poole NL, van den Brand Floor, et al. (2025). Is Seeing Cigarettes in the Retail Environment Associated with Impulse Purchases? Findings From Surveys in Disadvantaged and Non-disadvantaged Neighborhoods in the Netherlands. Nicotine & Tobacco Research.              
https://academic.oup.com/ntr/article/27/7/1274/8005025

Grimm Sabine, van Mastrigt Ghislaine, Hiligsmann M. (2025). Advancing the economics of prevention: emerging methods and approaches. Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research. 
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14737167.2025.2570689?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed

Voorn Melissa, et al. (2025). Healthcare professionals' perspectives on peer support in post-rehabilitation care for individuals with acquired brain injury: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research. 
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12913-025-13910-3

Kamenshchikova Alena, et al. (2024). Interventions to ensure access to and continuity of HIV care for international migrants: an evidence synthesis. The Lancet HIV.       
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352301824001759?via%3Dihub

Loh Wen Wei. (2025) Analyzing multiple mediators in multiple single-mediator models leads to wrong conclusions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2525811122

Janssen Ricky, et al. (2025). How to make an app-based program work and show how it works. PLOS Global Public Health.                
https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0005034  

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