Projects
Citizen science on park accessibility and park visitation among older adults Ghent University
Providing healthy cities for all is a major challenge for policy makers worldwide, especially in the context of massive urbanization and rapidly ageing populations. High quality urban parks could become an important aspect in creating healthy cities for older adults; since parks can positively impact the physical, mental and social health of their users. Unfortunately, older adults currently rarely visit parks. It is therefore important to ...
The relation between physical activity and sleep in older adults. The associations with movement behaviours and effects of a real-life lifestyle program. KU Leuven
Both physical activity and sleep have been identified as crucial determinants of healthy ageing. However, as people age, they become less physically active and more sedentary. Sleep quantity and sleep quality also tend to decline with ageing, resulting in one in two older adults suffering from sleep problems. Even if the decline in sleep does not result in a diagnosed sleep problem, it has far reaching consequences for an individuals’ health ...
Towards unraveling the complexities of social relations of adults with a disability in ambulatory support services. Personal Network Stories as a pathway to intervention. KU Leuven
Earlier research demonstrates the great importance of social relations for adults with a disability. Healthy interpersonal relationships and social inclusion are found to have a positive influence on several domains such as individual and family quality of life (e.g. Buntinx & Schalock, 2010; Munikanan et al., 2017) and better physical and mental health (e.g. Ehsan et al., 2019; Umberson & Montez, 2010). Adults with an intellectual ...
Stand Up, Stay Top! Tackling sedentary behavior in older adults through a feedback-based intervention Ghent University
The population of older adults is expected to increase considerably in the coming decades. This increase poses a major public health challenge, as aging is associated with a reduction in physical and cognitive functioning and health-related quality-of-life.
Decreasing sedentary behavior – or sitting – might be a promising strategy to foster healthy aging. Yet, few interventions have targeted older adults’ sedentary behavior. Moreover, ...
Support needs and trajectories of young adults with disabilities Ghent University
For many individuals, young adulthood represents the formative phase par excellence, where one hopes to lay the foundations for the rest of life. Whereas in adolescence one can still dream of the future, then in young adulthood one tries to turn those dreams into reality. For many young people, that means figuring out in good time what they want in terms of work or education, but also how they need to find and navigate their way through ...
Identification of gait adaptability strategies in healthy adults, patients with vestibular dysfunction and stroke patients. University of Antwerp
Cause-effect relationships between brain networks and inter-limb coordination in older adults and the effect of oscillating transcranial brain stimulation on training-induced neuroplastic changes and motor performance. Hasselt University
Functional measures to evaluate muscle power in older adults KU Leuven
Human ageing is associated with neuromuscular adaptations, which can lead to age-related muscle failure or sarcopenia. Muscle power, the product of muscle force and velocity, deteriorates faster with aging compared to muscle force and is highly related to functional activities such as walking, balance maintenance, standing up from a chair and stair ascent (SA), which makes it crucial for independency. Therefore, tracing muscle power loss at ...
Neighborhoud Environmental and Socioeconomic Correlates of Health Enhancing Physical Activity and Overweight among Adults in Nigeria Ghent University
(1) A study on cross-cultural adaptation and validation of internationally used questionaires (the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF), the Physical Activity Neighborhood Environment Scale (PANES) and the Neighborhood Environemnt Walkability Scale (NEWS) in Nigeria; (2) A population based cross-sectional study to determine the associations between outcomes (physical activity, and overweight status), and environmental ...