Sanne Nijhof

Prof. Sanne Nijhof is a pediatrician in Social Pediatrics and Professor of Interdisciplinary Preventive Pediatrics at UMC Utrecht. Her work focuses on how children and adolescents who face chronic illness, congenital conditions or other major health-related adversity can grow up as healthy as possible and participate fully in everyday life and society.

Her research takes a preventive, interdisciplinary and life-course perspective. Rather than focusing solely on diagnosis or disease, she studies the physical, psychological and social consequences that can emerge across different pediatric conditions. A central question is how early signals of impaired health and functioning can be identified, and how we can determine which child needs what support, and when.

A major focus of her research is on transdiagnostic outcomes and symptoms, including fatigue, mental health and participation, and on the interaction between biological, psychological and social factors. She leads and contributes to large-scale cohort studies and interdisciplinary research programs that combine patient-reported outcomes, clinical data and intensive longitudinal measurements to better understand differences between individual children.

Nijhof develops and evaluates personalized and preventive approaches to care, including eHealth interventions, ecological momentary assessment and N-of-1 methodologies. Children, adolescents and parents are actively involved as partners in research and care, including through co-design and the use of patient-reported outcomes in clinical practice.

Her work spans clinical pediatrics, epidemiology, behavioral and social sciences, data science and implementation. She collaborates across disciplines within UMC Utrecht, Utrecht University and national and international networks, with the aim of translating scientific knowledge into prevention and care that better fits the individual child and their context.

Nijhof was trained as a medical doctor and pediatrician at UMC Utrecht and subsequently specialized in Social Pediatrics. She obtained her PhD in 2013 with a thesis on chronic fatigue syndrome in adolescents. Her research has since developed into a broader program focused on physical, mental and social health, participation, personalized care and interdisciplinary prevention across pediatric populations.

Since December 2025, she has been Professor of Interdisciplinary Preventive Pediatrics at UMC Utrecht. She is also Chair of Thriving and Healthy Youth within Utrecht University’s Dynamics of Youth.