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Description
The aim of the initiative is to strengthen bilateral relations between Latvia and Iceland, by promoting scientific and socioeconomically significant cooperation by the means of using innovative methods to understand and overcome the consequences of Covid-19 crisis among the elderly. One of the main methods is statistical modelling, using the databases of Latvia and Iceland from the perspective of epidemiology and sociopsychology.
The main focus of the research will be on the issues of social exclusion, access of health services, economic stress, mental health and well-being. Similar to the
Summary of the results
The initiative has facilitated a unique collaboration in aging research between Latvia and Iceland, resulting in several publications in internationally cited journals and book chapters. The collaboration continues with more unpublished articles in development. Together with Icelandic colleagues, the promoter has also submitted a new project to the NORFACE and CHANSE Call for Proposals. A new HORIZON project is also under development, and other further collaboration projects are planned, involving new researchers from both universities.
It has been mutually beneficial to become more acquainted with each country, discussing the results and using contextual explanations, which have discussed and understood in the researchers'' group meetings. According to research results scientific article “Construction of healthy aging index from two different datasets” published (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1231779/full) as well as popular science publication “Loneliness, social isolation and ageing: a methodological approach to compare Latvian and Icelandic older populations in the course of COVID-19 pandemic” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10187401/) created, showing that the impact of various factors on aging, such as during COVID times, is not uniform and largely depends on the structure of society and various social and individual factors.