Emma De Keyser

Emma has a Master’s degree in Sports-and Movement sciences with a specialisation in "physical activity, fitness and health”. In december 2022, she started a joint  PHD at UA, VUB and UGent. For VUB, she is a Ph.D. candidate in gerontology, affiliated with the FRIA Research Group.

Emma is involved in the "ACTIVE-AGE@home" project—a home-based functional training program designed for community-dwelling frail older adults. In this project, the aim is to assess the (cost) effectiveness of the functional training program across three conditions: supervised by professionals, supervised by volunteers, and a control group. Beyond my role as a Ph.D. researcher, she is also a professional trainer in this project.

Her specific focus within the ACTIVE-AGE@home project is to unravel the black box of exercise induced ADL improvements in frail older adults through a realist evaluation. She will investigate if and in which context (volunteer-led programs vs professional-led programs) cognition and loneliness serve as possible key mechanisms of exercise-induced ADL-improvements.

Understanding in which context and how physical exercise impacts ADL, cognition and loneliness may lay foundations for future targeted physical activity interventions to increase community-dwelling frail older adults’ ADL and QOL, which lowers health-care expenditure and use.

Expertise:

• Recruitment strategies for frail older adults
• Guiding home-based exercise sessions in frail older adults
• Exercise and its effects on cognition, loneliness and ADL
• Realist evaluation methodology