Improving Wearable Solutions with Nudging Actions in the Chronic Care Management: The SENIOR Project (original) (raw)
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2021
Population aging with longer life expectancy represents one of the most relevant challenges of the next future, also because of a significant proportion of older adult people may present with dementia. Motivating senior citizens with mild cognitive impairment to maintain their independence and functional abilities, improve health status and quality of life as well as social interactions, constitutes the main target of preventive medicine. According to a nudge theoretical approach, the SENIOR (SystEm of Nudge theory based ICT applications for OldeR citizens) project-developed thanks to the collaboration among Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Bicocca University and IRCCS Auxiologico Institute in Milan (Italy)-has been designed to adopt an advanced information and communication technology coaching system able to collect and integrate physiological, psychological and behavioral data, with the final aim of interacting with community-dwelling elderly people suffering from mild cognitive impairment and of providing them personalized feedback on lifestyle management. The SENIOR project proposes to use a smart-watch app for alerting family doctors, sharing information with family members in specific cases and monitoring patients at higher risk in hospital Units, in order to ameliorate health of senior citizens with mild cognitive impairment.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Population aging is related to a huge growth in healthcare and welfare costs. Therefore, wearable devices could be strategic for minimizing years of disability in old age and monitoring patients’ lifestyles and health. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of using smart devices to monitor patients’ physical activity in a primary care setting. To assess the acceptance of this novel technology from the point of view of both patients and healthcare professionals, two questionnaires (one paper-based and one ex-novo developed) were administered to 11 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and a non-compliant behavior towards the therapeutic indications of their general practitioner (GP). Seven participants would continue to use a wearable activity tracker to monitor their health. We observed that 75% of patients reported a device’s characteristics satisfaction level of over 80% of the total score assigned to this dimension. No differences were observed in the questionn...
Designing for a healthy life includes addressing the needs of an ageing population. The number of people aged 65 and older with mild cognitive impairment and dementia is rising. Whilst there is to-date no pharmacological cure, treatments for symptoms and studies into the effect of non-pharmacological interventions have increasingly become available, with the goals of maintaining and supporting cognitive function, helping the person compensate for impairments, and improving the quality of life. Promising yet nascent is the use of wearable technology for cognitive rehabilitation. We conducted an exploratory feasibility study adapting wearable technologies to support the above-mentioned elderly user group remember to remember their daily activities such as non-routine appointments. Six design concepts with smartwatches, smart bands, smartphones, smart calendar boards, NFC tags, and augmented reality glasses were sketched and two low-fidelity prototypes, Memofy and Komihu, were developed and tested with three patients and their caregivers. Technology acceptance was high both amongst patients and health personnel, encouraging further in-depth and longitudinal tests for health outcomes.
Smart self management: assistive technology to support people with chronic disease
2010
We have developed a personalised self management system to support self management of chronic conditions with support from health-care professionals. Accelerometers are used to measure gross levels of activity, for example walking around the house, and used to infer higher level activity states, such as standing, sitting and lying. A smart phone containing an accelerometer and a global positioning system (GPS) module can be used to monitor outdoor activity, providing both activity and location based information. Heart rate, blood pressure and weight are recorded and input to the system by the user. A decision support system (DSS) detects abnormal activity and distinguishes life style patterns. The DSS is used to assess the self management process, and automates feedback to the user, consistent with the achievement of their life goals. We have found that telecare and assistive technology is feasible to support self management for chronic conditions within the home and local community environments.
The Use of Smartwatches for Health Monitoring in Home-Based Dementia Care
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2015
A large number of dementia patients receive home-based care, in order to maintain their independence and improve quality of life and health status. The current formal home-based care model presents certain limitations related to the monitoring of the patients and the reporting of the progression of physical and cognitive decline. In recent years, novel care models and assistive technologies have been proposed in order to improve the quality of care and assistance services. In this paper, we test the assumption that the use of smartwatches for monitoring physical health aspects of dementia patients can benefit formal home-based care, by providing formal caregivers with additional, important information about significant, health-related events that may have happened during the non-visit home care hours. We perform a qualitative feasibility study -consisted of a small-scale usability study with one dementia patient, and an expert (physician) review -in order to test and evaluate the efficacy of a smartwatch intervention in home-based dementia care, as well as to examine its potential for a subsequent, larger-scale study. The smartwatch documented participant's health-related issues regarding night sleep disturbances, potentially frequent toilet visits, daytime snoozing, low sleep quality and early waking up times. Those issues were verified by the project's physician and, subsequently, measures can be taken to ensure the patient's good health, safety, and quality of life.
wearable sensors: an elders need
The life expectancy of people is improving with better health care, medicines and rapid scientific development. According to the United Nations Population Division (UN 2011), India's 60 and older population is expected around 323 million people, a number greater than the total U.S. population in 2012. An important challenge of providing health care to this large number of elders is of a great concern. Restructuring health care systems toward proactive managing of wellness rather than illness, and focusing on prevention and early detection of disease emerge as the answers to these problems. Wearable systems with context awareness for continuous health monitoring are a key technology in helping the transition to more proactive and affordable and scientific healthcare. In our paper we lay a basis understanding and approaches for implementing context awareness in a Body sensor network for proactive health management for elders.
GeriActive: Wearable app for monitoring and encouraging physical activity among older adults
2018
The ability to monitor a person's level of daily activity can inform self-management of physical activity and assist in augmenting behavioral interventions. For older adults, the importance of regular physical activity is critical to reduce the risk of long-term disability. In this work, we present GeriActive, an application on the Amulet wrist-worn device that monitors in real time older adults' daily activity levels (low, moderate and vigorous), which we categorized using metabolic equivalents (METs). The app implements an activity-level detection model we developed using a linear Support Vector Machine (SVM). We trained our model using data from volunteer subjects (n=29) who performed common physical activities (sit, stand, lay down, walk and run) and obtained an accuracy of 94.3% with leave-one-subject-out (LOSO) cross-validation. We ran a week-long field study to evaluate the usability and battery life of the GeriActive system where 5 older adults wore the Amulet as it monitored their activity level. Their feedback showed that our system has the potential to be usable and useful. Our evaluation further revealed a battery life of at least 1 week. The results are promising, indicating that the app may be used for activitylevel monitoring by individuals or researchers for health delivery interventions that could improve the health of older adults.
Extended Aid to Alzheimer and Dementia Patients using Novel Wearable Technology
International Journal of Computer Applications, 2018
In India, Alzheimer's is becoming prevalent as the country continues to grow with the enormous population. Also, more than 4 million people in India suffer from some form of dementia [21]. The gravity of this situation makes Alzheimer's and Dementia disease an emergency mental health issue must to be addressed. Till now the research directions are directed towards enabling technology assistance for patients' suffering with Alzheimer's and Dementia in mainly two ways: Assisting in day to day life and Helping in memory recall and reinforcement. The third major challenge to be addressed is monitoring 'Wandering Behavior'. It is observed in study that among many other challenges related to monitoring and offering care to Alzheimer's and Dementia patients, wandering behavior is the most challenging to manage. In this work, a wearable jacket for location tracking in order to keep track of patient is proposed. The objectives of proposed work are: Implement visual display for assistance, implement easy to carry and maintain wearable, aid caregiver and patient and offer user friendly interface
Application of Smart Wearable Devices in Elderly Care
The 2021 International Conference on Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics for IoT Security and Privacy, 2021
This article uses technical case analysis and field survey data to study the application of smart wearable devices in elderly care. Firstly, the research background is introduced, that is, with the huge number of elderly people and the increasingly serious aging trend, the physical and mental health of the elderly need to be paid attention to; secondly, the technical characteristics of smart wearable devices and the special needs of the elderly for smart wearable devices are analyzed. Further focused analysis on the health monitoring function of existing smart wearable devices, and preliminary prediction of the development direction of smart wearable devices are given as well; thirdly, through the author's field research data, it is found that the elderly hope that smart wearable devices can give them more help in entertainment and health. Finally, the author concludes that the development trend of smart wearable devices in the field of elderly care will be reflected in entertainment support and health management.