Visitrack: A Pervasive Service for Monitoring the Social Activity of Older Adults Living at Home

Author(s):  
Alonso Gaete ◽  
Francisco J. Gutierrez ◽  
Sergio F. Ochoa ◽  
Pablo Guerrero ◽  
André Wyzykowski
Author(s):  
Jongnam Hwang ◽  
Sangmin Park ◽  
Sujin Kim

Cognitive function is a critical health issue in later life, the decline of which disrupts well-being and daily life function. Cognitive decline in older ages can also be understood in the context of the social environment such as social connectedness and engagement in personal life. This study aimed to examine: (1) whether participation in social activities contributes to preventing cognitive decline, and (2) what type of social activities are beneficial to maintaining cognitive function. Data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLOSA) 2006–2014, a longitudinal survey of the household-dwelling population aged 45 and older in Korea were used. The results revealed that Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores decreased with increasing age, at a rate of approximately 0.18 units across all age-gender groups, and the decrease was steeper for adults aged 65 and over. Participation in social gatherings was likely to delay the decline in cognitive function after the age of 65. In a gender-stratified model, social activity may not have an impact on the decline of cognitive function for men, whereas participation in social gatherings was negatively related to the decline of MMSE scores in women. This study suggests the need for a gender-stratified policy for preventing the decline of cognitive function while promoting engagement in social activities in Korean older adults.


2020 ◽  
pp. 113208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodi Sturge ◽  
Mirjam Klaassens ◽  
Debbie Lager ◽  
Gerd Weitkamp ◽  
Daan Vegter ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothée Aubourg ◽  
Jacques Demongeot ◽  
Nicolas Vuillerme

BACKGROUND Understanding the social mechanisms of the circadian rhythms of activity represents a major issue in better managing the mechanisms of age-related diseases occurring over time in the elderly population. The automated analysis of call detail records (CDRs) provided by modern phone technologies can help meet such an objective. At this stage, however, whether and how the circadian rhythms of telephone call activity can be automatically and properly modeled in the elderly population remains to be established. OBJECTIVE Our goal for this study is to address whether and how the circadian rhythms of social activity observed through telephone calls could be automatically modeled in older adults. METHODS We analyzed a 12-month data set of outgoing telephone CDRs of 26 adults older than 65 years of age. We designed a statistical learning modeling approach adapted for exploratory analysis. First, Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) were calculated to automatically model each participant’s circadian rhythm of telephone call activity. Second, k-means clustering was used for grouping participants into distinct groups depending on the characteristics of their personal GMMs. RESULTS The results showed the existence of specific structures of telephone call activity in the daily social activity of older adults. At the individual level, GMMs allowed the identification of personal habits, such as morningness-eveningness for making calls. At the population level, k-means clustering allowed the structuring of these individual habits into specific morningness or eveningness clusters. CONCLUSIONS These findings support the potential of phone technologies and statistical learning approaches to automatically provide personalized and precise information on the social rhythms of telephone call activity of older individuals. Futures studies could integrate such digital insights with other sources of data to complete assessments of the circadian rhythms of activity in elderly populations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. e30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iman Khaghani Far ◽  
Michela Ferron ◽  
Francisco Ibarra ◽  
Marcos Baez ◽  
Stefano Tranquillini ◽  
...  

Background.Regular physical activity can substantially improve the physical wellbeing of older adults, preventing several chronic diseases and increasing cognitive performance and mood. However, research has shown that older adults are the most sedentary segment of society, spending much of their time seated or inactive. A variety of barriers make it difficult for older adults to maintain an active lifestyle, including logistical difficulties in going to a gym (for some adults, leaving home can be challenging), reduced functional abilities, and lack of motivation. In this paper, we report on the design and evaluation of Gymcentral. A training application running on tablet was designed to allow older adults to follow a personalized home-based exercise program while being remotely assisted by a coach. The objective of the study was to assess if a virtual gym that enables virtual presence and social interaction is more motivating for training than the same virtual gym without social interaction.Methods.A total of 37 adults aged between 65 and 87 years old (28 females and 9 males, mean age = 71, sd = 5.8) followed a personalized home-based strength and balance training plan for eight weeks. The participants performed the exercises autonomously at home using the Gymcentral application. Participants were assigned to two training groups: the Social group used an application with persuasive and social functionalities, while the Control group used a basic version of the service with no persuasive and social features. We further explored the effects of social facilitation, and in particular of virtual social presence, in user participation to training sessions. Outcome measures were adherence, persistence and co-presence rate.Results.Participants in the Social group attended significantly more exercise sessions than the Control group, providing evidence of a better engagement in the training program. Besides the focus on social persuasion measures, the study also confirms that a virtual gym service is effective for supporting individually tailored home-based physical training for older adults. The study also confirms that social facilitation tools motivate users to train together in a virtual fitness environment.Discussion.The study confirms that Gymcentral increases the participation of older adults in physical training compare to a similar version of the application without social and persuasive features. In addition, a significant increase in the co-presence of the Social group indicates that social presence motivates the participants to join training sessions at the same time with the other participants. These results are encouraging, as they motivate further research into using home-based training programs as an opportunity to stay physically and socially active, especially for those who for various reasons are bound to stay at home.


10.2196/22339 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. e22339
Author(s):  
Timothée Aubourg ◽  
Jacques Demongeot ◽  
Nicolas Vuillerme

Background Understanding the social mechanisms of the circadian rhythms of activity represents a major issue in better managing the mechanisms of age-related diseases occurring over time in the elderly population. The automated analysis of call detail records (CDRs) provided by modern phone technologies can help meet such an objective. At this stage, however, whether and how the circadian rhythms of telephone call activity can be automatically and properly modeled in the elderly population remains to be established. Objective Our goal for this study is to address whether and how the circadian rhythms of social activity observed through telephone calls could be automatically modeled in older adults. Methods We analyzed a 12-month data set of outgoing telephone CDRs of 26 adults older than 65 years of age. We designed a statistical learning modeling approach adapted for exploratory analysis. First, Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) were calculated to automatically model each participant’s circadian rhythm of telephone call activity. Second, k-means clustering was used for grouping participants into distinct groups depending on the characteristics of their personal GMMs. Results The results showed the existence of specific structures of telephone call activity in the daily social activity of older adults. At the individual level, GMMs allowed the identification of personal habits, such as morningness-eveningness for making calls. At the population level, k-means clustering allowed the structuring of these individual habits into specific morningness or eveningness clusters. Conclusions These findings support the potential of phone technologies and statistical learning approaches to automatically provide personalized and precise information on the social rhythms of telephone call activity of older individuals. Futures studies could integrate such digital insights with other sources of data to complete assessments of the circadian rhythms of activity in elderly populations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 104-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.M. van Leeuwen ◽  
J. Malley ◽  
J.E. Bosmans ◽  
A.P.D. Jansen ◽  
R.W. Ostelo ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Yvonne Rogalski ◽  
Muriel Quintana

The population of older adults is rapidly increasing, as is the number and type of products and interventions proposed to prevent or reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline. Advocacy and prevention are part of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA’s) scope of practice documents, and speech-language pathologists must have basic awareness of the evidence contributing to healthy cognitive aging. In this article, we provide a brief overview outlining the evidence on activity engagement and its effects on cognition in older adults. We explore the current evidence around the activities of eating and drinking with a discussion on the potential benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, alcohol, and coffee. We investigate the evidence on the hypothesized neuroprotective effects of social activity, the evidence on computerized cognitive training, and the emerging behavioral and neuroimaging evidence on physical activity. We conclude that actively aging using a combination of several strategies may be our best line of defense against cognitive decline.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-205
Author(s):  
Heidi Mattila

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 90-97
Author(s):  
Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Ladeedah is an audio novella that takes place in a Black utopic space after “the improvised revolution.” Ladeedah is a tone-deaf, rhythm-lacking Black girl in a world where everyone dances and sings at all times. What is Ladeedah's destiny as a quiet, clumsy genius in a society where movement and sound are the basis of the social structure and the definition of freedom? This excerpt from Ladeedah focuses on Ladeedah's attempts to understand the meaning of revolution from her own perspectives—at home, at school, and in her own mind and body.


1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-226
Author(s):  
Олена Горова

Професійне   становлення   особистості   супроводжує   всі   етапи  соціально-вікового   розвитку  особистості.  Трудова  діяльність  є  основним  видом  суспільної  активності,  який  дозволяє  працівнику  задовольняти  основні  потреби,  особливо  у  процесі  постійних  соціальних,  освітніх  реформ.  Важливим  завданням психологічного супроводу працівника у процесі виконання професійної діяльності є забезпечення  сприятливих  умов  формування  професійно  важливих  якостей.  Соціальна  успішність  є  результатом  ефективного  розв’язання  виробничих  завдань, які  мають  суспільно корисну  важливість  та  пов’язані  з  потребами інших людей. Якісний прогресивний розвиток працівника можливий лише за умови збереження  стійкого  позитивного  ставлення  до  професії.  Позитивна  професійна  самоідентифікація  пов’язана  з  ототожненням  та  персоналізацією  працівником  особистісних  рис  працівників,  які  досягли  успіху  у  професії,  мають  суспільно  визнані  результати  діяльності.  Таким  чином,  професійна  успішність  як  суб’єктне  новоутворення  у  якості  відчуття  гордості  за  власні  результати  діяльності  забезпечує  реалізацію традиції наставництва і  передачі позитивного професійного досвіду.    Професійно  успішний  працівник  усвідомлює  необхідність  та  важливість  результатів  своєї  діяльності  для  інших,  що  вимагає,  відповідно,  від  соціального  середовища  усвідомлення  необхідності  визнання  результатів  діяльності  фахівців.  Знехтуваний  суспільством  працівник,  або  той,  результати  діяльності  якого  позиціонуються  як  меншовартісні,  дистанціюється  від  професії  та  має  негативний  потенціал розвитку. Professional formation of the person accompanies all phases of social and age of the individual. Gainful  employment is the main form of social activity that allows the employee to realize the basic needs. An important task  of psychological support worker in the course of professional activity is to provide favorable conditions for the  formation  of  professionally  important  qualities.  Professional  success  is  the  result  of  an  effective  solution  of  industrial jobs that are socially useful and important related to the needs of others. High-quality progressive  development of an employee is only possible while maintaining a stable positive attitude towards the profession.  Positive  professional  identity  associated  with  the  identification  and  personalization  of  employee  personality traits of employees who have been successful in the profession, who have publicly acknowledged  performance. Thus professional success as the subjective feeling of a lump in the pride of their own results of  operations  ensures  the  implementation  of  the  tradition  of  mentoring  and  of  positive  transfer  of  professional  experience.  Professionally successful employees aware of the need and the importance of the results of its operations  for the other, which requires, respectively, from the social environment - awareness of the need to recognize the  performance of specialists. Unclaimed society worker, or the results of operations, which are positioned as less  important, is moving away from the profession and has a negative potential. 


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document