Professor of Gerontology and Public Health at the Gerontology Research Center and the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, and Director of the Public Health Programme at the Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki.
I lead a multidisciplinary research group in healthy and active ageing, comprising PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and senior researchers funded by various sources and based at the Gerontology Research Center and Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, and at the Folkhälsan Research Center in Helsinki. We collaborate with research groups at the University of Helsinki, Tampere University, University of Oulu, Åbo Akademi, Karolinska Institutet, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Lund University in Sweden.
My research focuses on healthy and active ageing from a life course perspective. I apply a multidisciplinary approach to the research in gerontology and public health. As healthy and active ageing from a life course perspective is such a broad field of research, it is necessary to study the multiple domains of physical, psychological and social functioning and health using different study designs and methods. Within this area, my research interests also include work ability, trajectories of health, functioning and frailty as well as the role of adaptation to adverse life events and lifestyle factors, mainly physical activity and various social aspects of ageing.
