In the Netherlands, more than 1.1 million people live with type 2 diabetes. An estimated 400,000 of them do not know it. The disease develops silently, without symptoms, until complications such as heart disease, blindness or dementia emerge. More than a thousand new diagnoses are added every week. Many of them could have been prevented.
A public health challenge with a systemic solution
The Diabetes Fund challenged NOISE to answer a fundamental question: how do you reach people who are unaware of their risk, without triggering fear or blame, and motivate them to act? Traditional health communication falls short. Knowledge rarely translates directly into behaviour change.
Through its behavioural lab Bhave, NOISE developed a strategy grounded in behavioural science: psychology, nudging and social norm theory * The intervention identified the moments when people are most receptive to change, and offered a small, concrete first step at exactly those moments. The rollout reached audiences through television, radio and online channels.
Scale as proof of strategic effectiveness
The results are measurable. Around 400,000 people completed the online risk assessment. Approximately 100,000 were referred to their GP for preventive follow-up. Early detection at this scale makes a structural contribution to reducing healthcare costs, a societal saving that compounds substantially over a five to ten year horizon.
For context: the total economic burden of diabetes in the Netherlands, including direct healthcare costs, complications and productivity loss, is estimated at €6.9 billion per year. Labour market costs alone exceed one billion euros annually (SEO Economic Research, 2025).*
*The Bhave methodology was presented at the Behavioural Change Conference at Utrecht University as a real-world proof point of effective behavioural intervention at population scale.