Projects / Programmes
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 3.08.00 |
Medical sciences |
Public health (occupational safety) |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| B710 |
Biomedical sciences |
Physical medicine, kinesitherapy, revalidation, rehabilitation |
ageing, falls, functional training, balance, stabilometry, food safety, healthy lifestyle
Researchers (14)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
At least half of the elderly population experience problems during their everyday activities most of which require appropriate physical condition and balance abilities. Balance dysfunctions are also the most important risk factor for sudden falls. Special balance training program for elderly will be developed and evaluated using clinical tests and stabilometry with novel analysis techniques. Besides, the risk of falls assessment tool, which is widely used in occupational therapy, will be adapted and applied to our population. As the consequences of carelessness and mistakes or negligence of food safety requirements can be fatal for consumers, especially for vulnerable groups such as elderly people, the actual level of food safety knowledge and relevant food handling practices among elderly will be investigated. The quality of the consumed food will be investigated with the special attention to the intake of antioxidants that are often claimed to prevent the intracellular oxidative damage formation and thus decrease the incidence of age related diseases. The possibility of a multidisciplinary approach to the implementation of the health-education programs to raise awareness of the importance of healthy behaviour will be investigated. A qualitative study to explore how older persons experience basic concepts of the study: activity, health, and ageing will be performed. The results will be interpreted in the light of comparable research and presented as a map of conceptualizations which could be used in developing intervention strategies with older people.
Significance for science
Randomized controlled study of frail elderly population has shown that even the nursing-home dwelling population can benefit from balance specific training which has also effect on active elderly population. The newly developed procedures for analyzing the stabilometric data provide better understanding of the mechanisms of postural control and will be used to evaluate different therapeutic procedures. Web-based design of the software is expected to facilitate the cooperation between various laboratories in Slovenia and worldwide. The study of home food preparation procedures by elderly revealed insufficient knowledge of good practice, poor level of hygienic status in kitchens and lack of information about cool chain in food processing. It was also shown that active elderly often consider their quality of life as very good independently of their objective health status.
Within the framework of this project a very successful research group has been formed which is expected to continue its work and serve as a centre for interdisciplinary research of the processes of aging.
Significance for the country
Since the proportion of elderly population in Slovenia increases the care for them means increasingly larger moral and financial obligation for the society. It is thus very important to understand the processes of ageing, the needs of elderly and the implementation of new procedures to keep the ageing population as long as possible active in their home environment. Among these are also the developments of new training protocols to improve balance functions and the methods of their evaluations. For planning of successful ageing are also very important the knowledge of risks related to home food preparation and the understanding of self image of elderly as well as their subjective experience of ageing.
It is expected that the interdisciplinary research group that formed within the framework of this project will continue with their research work and will serve as nucleus of an important research centre for the processes of ageing which will be attractive for researchers worldwide.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2008,
2009,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2008,
2009,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
