The Frailty in Ageing (FRIA) research department at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel is a clinical and research team that brings together the multidisciplinary expertise needed for both fundamental and clinical research on frailty in older adults.
Frailty is a complex geriatric syndrome characterised by a state of increased vulnerability in older age. There is growing evidence for the involvement of inflammatory processes in the development of frailty. Frail older adults show several clinical manifestations, such as sarcopenia, dynapenia, fatigue, sedentary lifestyle, malnutrition, cognitive decline and disability in activities of daily living. Frailty is typically an unstable condition, which can be aggravated by a multitude of triggers of clinical (disease, trauma, etc.) and psychosocial (life events) origin.
The aims of FRIA's research activities are to untangle the underlying mechanisms and to develop interventions for the prevention and rehabilitation of frailty in older adults.
FRIA has experience in the following topics:
- development and validation of strength and fatigue resistance measurements in older adults and geriatric patients
- development of health classification systems for older adults
- evaluation of the effect of strength training in older adults (muscular parameters and inflammation)
- reaction time tests
- surface EMG
- interaction between inflammation and various heat shock proteins (in serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cells [PBMC])
- evaluation of rigidity and stiffness in older adults
- gait analysis using accelerometry
- evaluation and treatment of postural alterations in older age
- cell cultures (fibroblasts, PBMC, various cell lines)
- motivators, facilitators and barriers for physical activity in older adults