EU grant for research on the health skills of European elderly

The University of Groningen and the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) will collaborate with a variety of research partners and businesses in a research project within the framework of the Healthy Ageing programme to study the health skills of elderly people. The northern Netherlands research consortium has been awarded a EUR 1.25 million grant.

Which health skills do older people need to lead a healthy life and to find their way in the world of healthcare? How can healthcare better support elderly people with less developed health skills? What is the best way to provide people with healthcare-related information? And what can the healthcare sector learn from businesses that focus on the elderly? The answers to these and other questions should eventually result in concrete actions: interventions and programmes to help the elderly live more healthily.

Previous research has shown that over 50% of all elderly people in Europe have poorly developed health skills. These people are not sufficiently able to read, understand and apply information about health, prevention and care and to make decisions with regard to their own health. The European Union is awarding a total of EUR 3 million for this research, including EUR 1.25 million to the ‘Groningen’ component.

The project is conducted by the University of Groningen and the UMCG in collaboration with the Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, a number of northern companies and various partners. Several parts of the project will be carried out by consortia of research institutions and businesses in ten other European countries. In the north of the Netherlands, IT company Vitalinq, publishing company Noordhoff and TNO-CBO are among the main contributors.

The collaboration aims at an integrated European approach to help the elderly cope with healthcare and prevention and enable them to make their own decisions about these issues. On 13 and 14 December 2012, all 22 European partners will gather in Groningen to kick off the project which will generate important contributions towards the Healthy Ageing programme. The project is expected to be completed in late 2015.

More information

Please contact the UMCG Press Office for more information, tel. (050) 361 22 00.