Healthy ageing

Healthy and active ageing

How can we stay healthy, happy and socially active for longer? Which factors govern our physical, psychological and social wellbeing? The multidisciplinary programme Healthy Ageing concentrates on issues like these.
Healthy ageing is one of the strategic focus areas of the University of Groningen and the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG).

Society under pressure

There are more and more elderly and they are making increasing demands on society. At the same time there are fewer people available to provide care or to contribute to building up pensions. This combination of demographic ageing and dejuvenation is putting our economy and society under pressure – a growing social problem across the entire Western world.
Research into how people can live longer in a healthy, happy and active way will contribute to resolving this problem. New knowledge will lead to opportunities to improve the health, wellbeing and social participation of people.

Research lines within the University of Groningen and the UMCG

The scientific research programme around Healthy Ageing combines several different lines of approach. They include lines from the medical sciences, as well as from cell biology, chemistry, physics, demographics, geography and economics, sociology and other academic disciplines. After all, the physical, psychological and social wellbeing in a person’s life is determined by several factors in a complex interplay. Multidisciplinary research is needed to shed light on this.

People at centre stage

The University and the UMCG are conducting research designed to produce tangible results for citizens and society. Our research is often conducted in close consultation with involved parties. What is at issue are medical matters, how to prevent and to treat illnesses. It’s also about how people give their lives meaning, and how they can keep control of their lives even while their health is declining.
People are at centre stage in all of our research, so that new knowledge can lead to solutions that those people really can and want to implement.