University of Tartu, Estonia

Brief description and aims of work

The University of Tartu (UT) is an old (founded in 1632) traditional multidisciplinary university with ten faculties and more than 10.000 full time students including approximately 10% foreign students. Interdisciplinary research and teaching is one of the priorities of the UT. Research in gerontology and geriatrics has been developing since 2000 in collaboration with medical, nursing, social sciences and physical therapy disciplines. The Faculty of Medicine (the only medical school in Estonia) has been leading many of joint projects.

Kai Saks is a medical doctor, PhD, holds an associate professor position in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Tartu. She has background in cardiology and geriatrics. Her scientific interest has been epidemiology of diseases in older population, comprehensive geriatric assessment, quality of life of care-dependent people and quality of care. She was a co-ordinator and principal researcher in many interdisciplinary studies on country and international level. In addition, she is a leader of the National Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics that is responsible for quality development in elderly care. Within last years, standards for care in nursing departments were developed and plan of development of services for persons with dementia was drawn for the Ministry of Social Affairs.


Team members


Prof. Kai Saks
University of Tartu
Dept. of Internal Medicine
Puusepa 6-261
51014 Tartu, Estonia

Phone: +372 731 8627
Fax:   +372 731 8600
Email
Website




Katrin Raamat (MA)
University of Tartu
Dept. of Internal Medicine
Tallinn Diaconal Hospital of EELC
42 Hiiu street
11619 Tallinn, Estonia

Phone: +372 65 10337
Email

 


Jelena Leibur (MD)
University of Tartu
Dept. of Internal Medicine
Tallinn Diaconal Hospital of EELC
42 Hiiu street
11619 Tallinn, Estonia

Phone: +372 65 10336
Email

 


Angelika Armolik (MA)
University of Tartu
Dept. of Internal Medicine
Foundation Mental Health Care Centre
Nõlvaku 12
51014 Tartu, Estonia

Phone: +372 736 1510
Email

 


Ene-Margit Tiit (PhD, prof. emer.)
University of Tartu
Facyulty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences
J-Liivi 2
42 Hiiu street
50409 Tartu, Estonia

Phone: +372 737 5488
Email

 


Selected recent publications      

  • Saks K, Kolk H, Soots A, Kõiv K, Paju I, Jaanson K, Scneider G. Health status of the older population in Estonia. Croatian Medical Journal 2001; 42(6):663-668.

  • Saks K, Tiit E-M , Käärik E, Jaanson K. Depressive symptoms in older Estonians: Prevalence and models. J Am Geriatr Soc 2002; 50(6):1164-1165.

  • Saks K, Kolk H, Soots A, Takker U, Vask M. Prevalence of cardiovascular disorders among the elderly in primary care in Estonia. Scand J of Prim Health Care 2003; 21(2), 106-109.

  • Tiit E.-M, Vähi M, Saks, K. Using structural equation modeling to discover the hidden structure of CK data. In: Proceedings in Computational Statistics 2006: 17th Symposium of IASC on Computational Statistics; Rome, Italy; 28 August - 1 September, 2006 . (Toim.) Rizzi, A.; Vichi, M. Heidelberg: Physica Verlag, 767 - 775.

  • Saks K, Tiit E-M. Subjective quality of life of care-dependent older people in five European Union countries. In: Care. related quality of life in old age. Concepts, models, and empirical findings 2008; Eds: Vaarama M, Pieper R, Sixsmith A. Springer, New York, pp.153-167

  • Saks K, Tiit E-M, Muurinen S, Mukkila S, Frommelt M, Hammond M. Quality of life in institutional care. In: Care. related quality of life in old age. Concepts, models, and empirical findings 2008; Eds: Vaarama M, Pieper R, Sixsmith A. Springer, New York, pp.196-216.

  • Vaarama M, Tiit E.-M. Quality of Life of Older Homecare Clients. Vaarama M, Pieper R, Sixsmith A (Toim.). Care-related Quality of Life in Old Age 2008; 168 - 195. New York: Springer

  • Saks K, Urban R. Adaptation of interRAI instruments for comprehensive assessment of patients with care needs. Adv in Gerontol 2008; 2, 286 - 292.

  • Saks K. Dementia and concurrent diseases In: Handbook for careres of persons with dementia 2008; Ed. Linnamägi, Ü. Tallinn;25-32

  • Tiit E-M. Global human development index. In: Estonian Human Development Report 2009; 10—12. Tallinn.

  • Saks, K. Quality of life of older population. In: Estonian Human Development Report 2009; 74-78. Tallinn.

  • Tiit E-M. Estimating poverty and the trends of poverty in Estonia in 1998-2004, in: Trapenciere, I; Tiit, E-M; Trost, J (eds) Family on the crossroads 2009; Vol 2.. Riga, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Latvia, pp. 40-52. ISBN 9984-624-36-6.

  • Paats M, Tiit E-M. Income from own consumption. In: Income and living conditions in Europe 2010; Atkinson A.B., Maelier E., (toim), 179—195, EUROSTAT, Luxembourg.

  • Tamm R, Saks K, Pääsuke M. Research on ageing and longevity in Estonia Reviews in Clinical Gerontology 2010; 20;2:154-159.

 

 

Website

http://www.lumelaud.net/sisekliinik/