Biography
Thijs van den Broek is assistant professor at the Socio-Medical Sciences research group of the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM). His research focuses on wellbeing, health and (informal and formal) care use, in particular of older people and migrants. His work is situated at the intersection of demography, sociology and public health. As a scholar, he aims to contribute to diminishing health inequalities by doing rigorous research that provides insights that policymakers and practitioners can build on to develop equitable policies and interventions.
He holds a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship for a project on health and wellbeing of Turkish migrants in Europe. Previously, he received research funding from the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC, UK) and Erasmus Trustfonds. In 2021, he was awarded the Frans Rutten Research Prize for most promising early career researcher at ESHPM. His work has been published in leading journals, such as Journals of Gerontology, Series: B; Social Science & Medicine; Population, Space and Place; and Ageing & Society.
Academically, Thijs is a bit of a late bloomer. Rather than focusing on studying while in his 20s, he played underground stages all over Europe with several indie bands, recorded a duet with the legendary Kimya Dawson, and scored a minor radio hit in Norway. In his early 30s, he signed up for the evening MSc programme in Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He finished the programme with Cum Laude honours, and for his Master thesis he won the Joep Munnichs Prize from the Netherlands Society for Gerontology.
Following his PhD in Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, he worked as a postdoc at the London School of Economics. He also had stints as a visiting researcher at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) in The Hague and the German Centre for Gerontology (DZA) in Berlin. He serves as associate editor for the journal Demographic Research, and as management committee member in the COST Action TraFaDy, an international research network on transnational families with 130+ members from 29 countries. The societal impact of his work is illustrated by contributions to advisory reports commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER), and by coverage of his research in mainstream media (Volkskrant, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, LSE IQ podcast, BNR Radio).
Thijs has served as advisory board member for the Erasmus Data Service Centre and as member of ESHPM's Faculty Council and Programme Committee. Currently, he is a member of ESHPM's Research Ethic Review Committee. He also coordinates the elective minor course Public Health, and supervises master's theses.
Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management
- vandenbroek@eshpm.eur.nl
More information
Work
- Thijs van den Broek (2024) - Trends (2003–2020) in later-life sports participation among five ethnic groups in the Netherlands - Journal of Population Ageing - doi: 10.1007/s12062-024-09470-9 - [link]
- Thijs van den Broek, Jack Lam & Cecilia Potente (2024) - Do middle-aged and older people underreport loneliness?: experimental evidence from the Netherlands - European Journal of Ageing, 21 (1) - doi: 10.1007/s10433-024-00826-w - [link]
- Nina Conkova & Thijs van den Broek (2024) - Long-Term Care Use Among Older Migrants in the Netherlands: What to Expect in the Next Decade? - Journal of Aging and Social Policy - doi: 10.1080/08959420.2024.2384195 - [link]
- Thijs van den Broek (2024) - Loneliness and regular sports participation among people of Turkish and Moroccan origin and native Dutch people in the Netherlands.: A longitudinal study - Preventive Medicine, 184 - doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2024.108002 - [link]
- Thijs van den Broek (2024) - Health selection into migration from Poland to the Netherlands: a matched case–control analysis - European Societies, 26 (5), 1420-1443 - doi: 10.1080/14616696.2024.2317762 - [link]
- Enise Çayci, Charifa Zemouri & Thijs van den Broek (2023) - The contribution of parity to ethnic differences in mothers' body mass index in the Netherlands: A Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition approach - Preventive Medicine Reports, 36 - doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102484 - [link]
- Zeyun Feng, Thijs van den Broek, Oliver Perra, Jane Murray Cramm & Anna Petra Nieboer (2023) - Longitudinal health behaviour patterns among adults aged ≥50 years in China and their associations with trajectories of depressive symptoms - Aging and Mental Health, 27 (9), 1843-1852 - doi: 10.1080/13607863.2022.2149694 - [link]
- Renée A. Scheepers, Thijs van den Broek, Jane Murray Cramm, Harry Finkenflügel & Anna Petra Nieboer (2023) - Changes in work conditions and well-being among healthcare professionals in long-term care settings in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study - Human Resources for Health, 21 (1) - doi: 10.1186/s12960-023-00847-z - [link]
- Enise Cayci & Thijs van den Broek (2022) - Goed ouder worden.: Wat vinden Turkse migranten in Nederland belangrijk? - Geron : tijdschrift over ouder worden en samenleving, 24 (4) - [link]
- Emma Kuppens & Thijs van den Broek (2022) - Social integration and mental health of Somali refugees in the Netherlands: the role of perceived discrimination - BMC Public Health, 22 (1) - doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-14655-y - [link]
- Thijs van den Broek (2023) - NWO SSH Open Competition XS Grant
- Enise Cayci, Thijs van den Broek & Anna Petra Nieboer (2023) - NWO Mosaic 2.0 grant
- MPB (Thijs) van den Broek (2021) - Frans Rutten Research Prize
- MPB (Thijs) van den Broek (2020) - Marie Skłodowska Curie Action Individual Fellowship
- MPB (Thijs) van den Broek (2018) - Understanding Society Biomarker Fellowship
- MPB (Thijs) van den Broek (2012) - Prof. Joep Munnichs Prize
Public Health
- Level
- bachelor 3
- Year Level
- bachelor 3
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- GWMINOR01
Module Knowledge
- Level
- bachelor 1
- Year Level
- bachelor 1
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- GW112K
Module Knowledge
- Level
- Bachelor 2
- Year Level
- Bachelor 2
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- GW207K
Master Thesis HEPL
- Level
- master
- Year Level
- master
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- GW4555M
Master Thesis HE
- Year Level
- master, master
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- GW4592M