How do we ensure that healthy living is possible for everyone? This question is central to the inaugural lecture by Carry Renders, Professor of Integrated Approaches to a Healthy Society.
Her starting point is that health is shaped not only by individual choices, but also by the everyday environment – at home, at school, and in the neighborhood – where what is available, space, rules, and routines determine what is possible in daily life.
Obesity
A key area of concern is obesity. In the Netherlands, a large part of the population is living with overweight or obesity, and the differences between socioeconomic groups are considerable. People with a lower socioeconomic position are more likely to be overweight, live shorter lives on average, and spend more years in poorer health. This inequality is linked to differences in income, financial security, and living environment. "Obesity is therefore not just an individual problem, but a complex societal health challenge in which social, economic, and environmental factors come together ," says Renders.
Therefore, Renders advocates for an integrated approach: not simply adding separate activities, but organizing coherence between what happens at home, what schools do, what neighborhoods offer, and what policy enables. This calls for choices that make healthy options easier, more attractive, and more the default.
Engagement, connection, and flexibility
Renders' chair builds on projects focused on overweight and obesity and promoting healthy lifestyles for children within families, at schools, in neighborhoods, and through youth healthcare. She applies three core principles: engagement of residents, professionals, and policymakers; collaboration between sectors and between research, policy, and practice; and flexibility: cyclical learning and adjustment, as circumstances are constantly changing.
A key aspect of Renders' approach is that success is not measured only by health outcomes but also by how change is achieved; for example, how collaboration and decision-making unfold and whether new ways of working are truly embedded in practice. "If you only focus on health or behavior, you're often too late. You need to see along the way what works, for whom, and why, and be able to adjust accordingly in time.”
By strengthening healthy living environments, building community capacity, and improving people's health literacy , Renders aims to contribute to a society in which healthy living is achievable for everyone.
Carry Renders inaugural lecture is on March 20 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.