Jeroen Lakerveld leads a research group (“the Upstream Team”) that focuses on environmental determinants of lifestyle behaviours and chronic disease risk. In particular, his research focuses on how the physical environment influences people's behaviour, contributing to conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
He started his career as a physical therapist and continued his academic education with a degree in health sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, followed by a master's degree in Public Health Research. In 2011, he obtained his PhD with a dissertation on the prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in primary care.
He is coordinator of several large-scale research projects, including the European OBCT project investigating the biological, socio-cultural and environmental determinants of obesity to reduce socioeconomic health disparities. He also leads the Geohealth Cohort Consortium (GECCO), which provides researchers with geographic data to analyze the relationship between environmental exposures and health. His work contributes to the development of policies and interventions aimed at improving the living environment to promote healthy behaviours and reduce chronic disease.
Disease prevention at scale starts upstream: by improving the living environment, we improve the trajectory of population health.