Whole of Rotterdam healthier with the VITR Vitality Scan

Rotterdam offers its citizens a city-wide lifestyle intervention: with the online VITR Vitaalscan, all Rotterdammers can now gain more insight into their own health and health risks. Medical Delta Living Lab Vit for life is one of the project's consortium partners.

The VITR Vitaalscan, developed by SmartVitaal, is offered free of charge to all Rotterdammers. The scan has a Dutch, English, Arabic, Turkish and Spanish version and can be read aloud in those languages. Soon an edition in visual language will also be available, especially for people who have difficulty reading and writing. The Vitaalscan is part of VITR, which stands for Vitaal Innovatie Traject Rotterdam. The aim of this project is to use smart technology to motivate Rotterdammers to improve their lifestyle.

VITR is an initiative of the VITR Consortium, which consists of Erasmus MC, the Centre for Care Innovation of Rotterdam University, SmartVitaal, wmo radar, the Stichting Lezen en Schrijven (Reading and Writing Foundation) and Medical Delta Living Lab Vit for life.

Sustainable solution for prevention

Although life expectancy in the Netherlands is rising, it is not yet a matter of course that we all grow old in good health. Unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, lack of exercise and unhealthy diets have a negative impact on public health. This is certainly the case in Rotterdam, where the average population is unhealthier than in the rest of the Netherlands, according to the Gezond010 agreement. VITR wants to change this by making prevention easily accessible and scalable, and by measuring its effectiveness. VITR aims to provide a sustainable solution to prevention.

Insight into lifestyle and heart risk

The VITR Vitaalscan is based on medically validated questionnaires on nutrition, exercise and personal hygiene. The scan also contains questions about smoking, stress, blood pressure and the participant's hereditary condition. Based on the participant's answers, a smart algorithm* calculates and maps out the status of his lifestyle and heart risk: the two elements that determine the state of health. With clear visual language (red, orange and green smileys) the participant gets to see his/her own personal scores, accompanied by extensive personal advice.

Getting started yourself on the e-Health platform

Anyone who wants to improve their lifestyle after completing the Vitaalscan can access SmartVitaal's e-Health platform free of charge for a year. This platform contains an extensive health test (e-PMO), practical tips and inspiration and numerous challenges to participate in. Moreover, the participant can call on the help of health professionals such as lifestyle coaches and dieticians if desired, because on the basis of the postcode and personal scores, the technology shows precisely the health offering that is relevant and in the neighbourhood.

A practical example

The VITR Vitaalscan of Corrie van Driel (70), resident of the Overschie neighbourhood, showed that she was - in her own words - 'a risk case': 'I appeared to have an increased risk of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases,' she says. That didn't come as a complete surprise, but I did think: oh dear, now I have to watch out and get to work'.

This motivation to change something is something that lifestyle coach Evelyne Hurkmans has often seen after people have completed the Vitality scan. Hurkmans supervised several groups of participants during a 'blended care' programme offered by VITR - a collaboration with wmo radar in which, in addition to the Vitaalscan and the e-Health platform, offline support is also offered in a series of meetings. For six weeks, participants learned more about various lifestyle themes: from exercise to nutrition and from drinking water to sleep, stress to hygiene. And that worked well, concludes Hurkmans: "During the meetings, you can really encourage people to make sustainable behavioural changes. Blended care, in which you combine the online scan with walking coaching, for example, is really the best solution."

And Corrie? Thanks to these meetings, she has started to exercise more and is now experiencing better sleep: "Sometimes I wake up with the feeling of: well, I slept really well! That is wonderful."

Mapping the health of Rotterdam

The effectiveness of VITR as a lifestyle intervention can be accurately measured using the smart technology. Developer SmartVitaal has already been doing this among employees of companies such as Zeeman and Spar. Using the technology, a reduction of at least 20 per cent in absence due to illness can be achieved in such companies. For the first time, the technology is now offered to an entire city and the health of all citizens of the city of Rotterdam can be charted.

You can find more information at the website of VITR.

*This algorithm is based on the lifestyle themes of the BRAVO health policy compass, namely exercise, smoking, alcohol, nutrition and relaxation, the lifestyle factors that determine 90% of the risk of having a heart attack (Interheart study, Lancet 2004) and other cardiovascular diseases.