Echteld.net

Research in health and quality of life

Projects

At the department of Intellectual Disability Medicine of the Erasmus Medical Center, the project GOUD (healthy ageing in intellectual disability) aims at 1. to increase knowledge on intellectual disability and healthy ageing by means of scientific research, 2. to increase the expertise and scientific attitude of staff by means of participation in research and continuous education, 3. innovation of care by means of implementation of research outcomes. For this first collaborative research project, the following specific subthemes have been chosen: 1. Mobility and Fitness; 2. Nutrition and Nutritional State; 3. Mood, Anxiety and Cognition. These themes have a strong mutual relationship, and a negative influence on health and quality of life, but they have hardly been studied in ageing people with intellectual disabilities. Medical as well as behavioural and care aspects are involved in all themes. Assessment of prevalences, associations, and secondary health effects will be performed in the total joint 50+ population of currently 2150 clients. A registry of these baseline data will be a basis for future longitudinal follow-up and intervention studies by the consortium.

A number of GOUD-studies in which I am involved are listed below. Click on the project titles for more information.

I'm also involved in Validation of the Utrecht Symptom Diary (collaborating with University Medical Centre Utrecht, Medical Oncology Department)

Quality of Life

The confusion about the definition of quality of life is often exaggerated and incorrect. Click here to find out why.