Diana Eijgermans

I am a PhD-candidate at the Department of Public Health. My research is on the determinants of children’s psychosocial care use. Speaking to different experience experts, I became passionate about doing research to improve the access to this type of care. Many children in specific subgroups suffer from mental health problems, but are underrepresented in care.

In my research, I use the data of the Generation R Study. This is a longitudinal, population-based, multi-ethnic birth cohort in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Having access to this rich dataset enables studying the many different factors that influence mental health care use.

I have a background in Health Sciences, more specifically in Health Education and Promotion. Here I developed a passion to improve children’s health. My motto is: learning a healthy behaviour as a child is way easier than changing your behaviour as an adult. During my study, I focussed on children’s nutrition (Healthy Supermarket Coach), physical activity (KEIGAAF) and healthy schools (Gezonde Basisschool van de Toekomst). Currently working on mental health provides me insight in another very important aspect of children’s health.