PhD Conferral Mrs. Anne van der Vorst, MSc. LLM. - Joint doctoral degree VU Brussel-UM

Keywords: frailty, conceptualisation, identification, quality of life

“Towards a strenghts - based approach in Multidimensional frailty; Conceptualisation and screening of frailty, and contributors to daily functioning in old age”

Most elderly people want to stay in their familiar surroundings for as long as possible. It is therefore important to identify and respond to the challenges to well-being, such as frailty, as early as possible. This dissertation found that the identification of frailty by caregivers and general practitioners leads to different results than when the perspectives of older people themselves are taken into account. It also found that frailty can be expressed in different ways, which suggests the importance of looking at specific functioning interventions on the individual level. Finally, this dissertation revealed that frail elderly people can still enjoy a good quality of life. The factors that contribute to this serve as the starting points for improving the well-being of this population group.