Geriatric research
With its various locations, the Center for Geriatric Medicine in Southern Saxony-Anhalt represents an ideal network for research in geriatric medicine. Our interdisciplinary team has extensive experience in basic and applied research with qualitative and quantitative data.
Research groups:
Geriatric palliative care
Dr. med. Stefanie Andernach, stefanie.andernach☉uk-halle.de
M.Sc. Rosa Brückner, rosa.brueckner☉uk-halle.de
Dr. med. Natalie Berges, natalie.berges☉uk-halle.de
Neuro geriatrics
Dr. med. Juliane Kellner, juliane.kellner☉uk-halle.de
Dr. med. Hannah Mühlhammer, Hannah.Muehlhammer☉uk-halle.de
Psychosocial aspects of ageing
M.Sc. Aline Schönenberg, aline.schoenenberg☉uk-halle.de
M.Sc. Annika Sternkopf, annika.sternkopf@uk-halle.de
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research funds our Project on Self-Management in older Age for three years!
Self-management encompasses all actions people take for their health, such as symptom monitoring, medication intake, diet, and therapy compliance. Additionally, psychosocial aspects such as emotion control, goal setting, and social contacts contribute to self-management.
Programmes to enhance self-management enable better coping with health-related challenges in everyday life and improve both health and quality of life.
Since the risk of illness rises along with age, self-management is an important tool to improve functionality and participation especially in the face of the demographic change.
In this project, we will develop modules for encompassing geriatric syndromes such as mobility issues, cognitive decline, and incontinence, in order to support older adults to cope with health-related and psychosocial challenges of ageing.
For further information, you find our project page here.
In advancing age, illnesses no longer occur in isolation but oftentimes in combination with others (multimorbidity). Due to this multimorbidity, it is rarely useful to allocate symptoms to individual illnesses. Instead, geriatric is concerned with overarching functioning and competencies. For this purpose, disease-unspecific geriatric syndromes are defined to describe a patients’ daily symptom experience. Geriatric syndromes are multi-faceted and may contain for example mobility problems and falls, dizziness, cognitive deficits, mood, incontinence and frailty. These geriatric syndromes are not yet sufficiently understood, therefore, we aim to uncover how these challenges influence daily life, how they develop, and how we can support older adults in their coping with them.
For questions: M.Sc. Aline Schönenberg, aline.schoenenberg@uk-halle.de
In advancing age, not only physical but also changes in daily life, social contacts and roles influence well-being. This is why at the ZASSA, in addition to biological factors, we focus on psychosocial aspects of ageing (Social Hallmarks of Ageing). These encompass socio-economic and educational aspects as well as difficult life events and suboptimal health behaviour. In addition to physical health, topics like loneliness, mood, expectations and stereotypes towards ageing, and self-management are connected with well-being in older age. Therefore, we research how social contacts, physical and mental activity, mood and independence are related to well-being and health. These aspects are continuously considered in all of our research projects. In addition, we utilize psychosocial well-being in addition to physical health as an endpoint in our studies.
For questions: M.Sc. Aline Schönenberg, aline.schoenenberg@uk-halle.de
Aging Expectations
Our expectations regarding aging accompany us our entire lives. They shape how we behave, how we interpret situations and circumstances, and ultimately how healthy we are in older age. Can we influence our health in advancing age at all, or is the way we age pre-determined? Can we learn new things even in older age? Are we still “worth something” in advancing age? These and other topics play a major role for our well-being and health in older age. Subjective age is one measure for how we feel in advanced age, reflecting how old we feel irrespective of our biological age. In addition, many areas of life change in advancing age, such as physical functioning, cognition, cultural interest, and time for family. We research how expectations in these areas shape our health and well-being.
Ageing Stereotypes
Expectations regarding ageing not only come from ourselves but also from other persons. Many expectations on older age are a manifest part of our society. These stereotypes are expectations and prejudices about certain characteristics and behaviours of persons because of advanced age. Stereotypes can be both positive and negative, the latter of which can even lead to discrimination (ageism).
Older persons who are confronted with negative stereotypes may suffer from reduced self-worth and lose motivation for beneficial health behaviour. They may also be less likely to claim medical aid. This means that ageing stereotypes influence quality and quantity of medical care. This is also due to subconscious aging stereotypes in medical staff.
This is why the WHO actively pleads for a positive view on ageing and aims to combat ageism in order to foster well-being of older adults.
In a multi-center study we research how the subjective age is defined and which stereotypes influence health, medical care and well-being of older patients.
For questions: M.Sc. Aline Schönenberg, aline.schoenenberg@uk-halle.de
Ageing stereotypes define our interactions with older adults, often leading to a changed form of communication called „Elderspeak“. Elderspeak describes an inappropriate, simplified style of speaking made up of verbal and nonverbal modifications. This includes for example the use of collective pronouns (“How do we feel today?” or “Do we need to go to the toilet before lunch?”), pet names, words of belittlement, and excessively high tone of voice with sing-song melody as often used with children. We assess, if and how older adults perceive Elderspeak, and how it influences healthcare and well-being
For questions:
Celina Friedland, celina.friedland☉uk-halle.de
Do you feel like your hearing loss leads to difficulties in communicating with your peers and relatives?
Our hearing is important for the interaction with other people. When hearing declines due to age-related processes, these interactions may become difficult and exhausting, often leading to misunderstandings. This is why hearing difficulties are related to social withdrawal and lower quality of life.
Together with the Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Jena, we test an online training programme for age-related hearing loss with the aim to improve the perception of emotions in voices.
We are currently in the process of finalizing the data collection phase.
For questions: M.Sc. Aline Schönenberg, aline.schoenenberg@uk-halle.de
Palliative care aims to soothe symptoms and strengthen the quality of life of patients, when a full recovery is not feasible. Palliative care is an important cornerstone of geriatric medicine, still it is not widely acknowledged or implemented. This means that many older patients do not receive the care they need. A standardized measurement for the recognition of palliative need would aid in guiding palliative care and providing adequate support for those in need. Therefore we construct a concept for the systematic detection of palliative are needs and test it within the ZASSA-Network. In this context we also aim to understand more about the factors contributing to palliative need and its relation with social connectedness and quality of life.
For questions: M.Sc. Rosa Brückner, Dr. med. Nathalie Berges, geriatrie.forschung☉uk-halle.de
Every Person has good and bad days. In advancing age, fluctuating health and disruptions in social contacts can lead to changes in well-being. We aim to understand the factors responsible for those changes and how we cope with these variations. This has important implcations not only for health and well-being, but also for scientific research. Assessing the stability of important health outcomes is essential to guide the interpretation of study results.
For this purpose, we collected longitudinal data on health, social contacts, mood, daily life, positive and negative events, and views on ageing of approximately 250 participants across 6 months. Data evaluation and analysis is currently ongoing.
First results are available from the procject dashboard: https://redcap.link/stability_studie_ukh_dashboard
AVATAR-SUPPORTED MEDICATION INTAKE WITH KI-BASED INTAKE CONTROL (AvatarMediKI)
Older adults with chronic illness require encompassing and long-term medical treatment. However, medication is oftentimes not taken as prescribed, leading to worse health outcomes and healthcare costs. Modern approaches and technologies such as electronic pill dispensers and apps. These can remind patients of their medication intake but cannot control said intake or discover reasons for non-intake.
In cooperation with wirewire GmbH, we aim to develop an intelligent medication dispenser that has the ability for a KI-based interaction with patients. Via this interaction, the dispenser can assess whether medication was taken as prescribed, assess its intake accuracy, as well as motivate patients for proper medication intake.
The project begins with interviews with the target audience to uncover their needs and requirements. In parallel, the first functions of the device will be programmed.
For questions:
M.Sc. Jennifer Schäning, E-Mail: jennifer.schaening@uk-halle.de
M.Sc. Jenny Marianne Ruttloff, E-Mail: jenny.ruttloff@uk-halle.de
Dr. med. Hannah Mühlhammer, Hannah.Muehlhammer@uk-halle.de
Project partner:
Addressing challenges in the intensive care of geriatric patients (GerICU)
Older people who are treated in intensive care after an operation often face particular challenges, such as delayed recovery, physical limitations or cognitive changes. Our aim is to better understand how intensive care treatment affects older patients in the long term. To do this, we are looking at how the treatment affects physical, mental and social health and what role the natural ageing process plays in this. Through this study, we want to develop a prediction model that takes into account physical, mental and social factors. We also want to develop individualized treatment paths to improve the care of older intensive care patients.
Project partners:
- University Clinic and Outpatient Clinic for Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care
- Department of Cardiac Surgery
- Department of History and Ethics of Medicine
Funding: Wilhelm-Roux-Programm
You want to support us in our research projects and share your experiences with us? We happily welcome participation from anyone – patients, older adults, caregivers and medical personnel!
We regularly look for participants in our studies that are largely based around questionnaires to age-related questionnaires. Further information for participation can be found here: participate.