scholarly journals Elder Monitoring Workflow System for Independent Living

Author(s):  
Sergiu Jecan ◽  
Dan Benta ◽  
Lucia Maria Rusu ◽  
Raluca Arba

This paper presents an automatic workflow framed in a gerontechnology solution, as part of the Active and Assisted Living (AAL) platform in Mobile@Old project. Our solution aims to increase or preserve cognitive functions, to track medication and coordinate physical activity through an exercising game (exergame). The exergame is customized according to each elderly person’s reactions and specificities. The workflow involves doctors, physiotherapists, the elderly person and their caregivers, in an ecosystem designed to ensure well-being and independence.

Author(s):  
Márcio Renê Brandão Soussa ◽  
Valter de Senna ◽  
Valéria Loureiro da Silva ◽  
Charles Lima Soares

AbstractThis paper proposes and describes an unsupervised computational model that monitors an elderly person who lives alone and issues alarms when a risk to the elderly person’s well-being is identified. This model is based on data extracted exclusively from passive infrared motion sensors connected to a ZigBee wireless network. The proposed monitoring system and model is non-intrusive, does not capture any images, and does not require any interaction with the monitored person. Thus, it is more likely to be adopted by members of the elderly population who might reject other more intrusive or complex types of technology. The developed computational model for activity discovery employs a kernel estimator and local outlier factor calculation, which are reliable and have a low computational cost. This model was tested with data collected over a period of 25 days from two elderly volunteers who live alone and have fairly different routines. The results demonstrate the model’s ability to learn relevant behaviors, as well as identify and issue alarms for atypical activities that can be suggestive of health problems. This low-cost, minimalistic sensor network approach is especially suited to the reality of underdeveloped (and developing) countries where assisted living communities are not available and low cost and ease of use are paramount.


Author(s):  
Ilia Adami ◽  
Margherita Antona ◽  
Constantine Stephanidis

The field of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) has shown great potential in counteracting some of the effects of the worldwide population ageing phenomenon. Its main goal is to promote a safe, healthy, and functional living environment for the elderly and people with disabilities who wish to live independently in their home. To achieve this goal, AAL environments utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the emerging Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigm in order to provide sophisticated solutions that can support the needs of an elderly person or a person with disabilities, at home. This chapter will present examples of AAL environments found in research and academic literature and the solutions they offer to cater for the basic needs of people with motor impairments in order to support their independent living and quality of life. The challenges of using such technologies will also be discussed.


Author(s):  
Fabio Veronese ◽  
Hassan Saidinejad ◽  
Sara Comai ◽  
Fabio Salice

The population ageing is inevitably going to change the society and the elderly living dynamics. Optimization of resources, independent living and enhancement of elderly's social, working, and physical activities are the key aspects of this changing. The current paradigm is Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), where the elderly person is enabled to live an independent and high-quality life by empowering the ambient around him/her. Home Automation can provide a two-way contribution: it represents an opportunity to help overcoming difficulties; while its pervasive instrumentation provides precious information. Being aware of the elderly's activities has several applications: for the families, reassuring them about their beloved's safety, for the caregivers, enabling them to provide prompt interventions. To highlight this aspect, it is possible to refer to AAML: Ambient Assisted and Monitored Living. This chapter introduces the design procedure of AAML systems, and their main challenges: user's needs centrality, data visualization and dependability.


Author(s):  
Angelika Cisek-Woźniak ◽  
Kinga Mruczyk ◽  
Rafał W. Wójciak

Physical activity has an unquestionable impact on broadly understood human health. One interesting issue related to this is the importance of movement on mental health and cognitive functioning. Research shows that regular physical activity improves the cognitive functioning of adults and people with mental disorders. Regular physical activity can be an important and powerful protective factor in cognitive impairment and dementia in the elderly, and exercise is an important non-pharmacological treatment for mild cognitive impairment or neurodegenerative diseases. This study aims to present the impact of physical activity on selected cognitive functions in physically active women over 60 years of age. The research was carried out in a group of 110 generally healthy women from the area of western Poland over 60 years of age, who were divided into four groups based on the intensity of their physical activity. A pedometer (sport watch) and a physical activity diary were used to measure physical activity. Body Mass Index was assessed. Selected cognitive functions were assessed using the MMSE test, motor and psychomotor skills were measured, and Luria’s auditory memory test and recall test, a clock drawing test, and a GDS test were performed. There were statistically significant relationships between the level of physical activity and the effectiveness of cognitive processes. These results show that about 5000 steps a day is enough to see a positive effect on the mental health and cognitive functioning of this group of the elderly population. The women had an average BMI of 28.1 ± 4.7. BMI, indicating an overweight condition (over 30 kg/m2), was observed in 31% of women. The results of this study lead the authors to conclude that physical activity positively influences cognitive function and can be recommended for all seniors who do not have other serious comorbidities that would prevent them from playing sports.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 517
Author(s):  
Ilia Adami ◽  
Michalis Foukarakis ◽  
Stavroula Ntoa ◽  
Nikolaos Partarakis ◽  
Nikolaos Stefanakis ◽  
...  

Improving the well-being and quality of life of the elderly population is closely related to assisting them to effectively manage age-related conditions such as chronic illnesses and anxiety, and to maintain their independence and self-sufficiency as much as possible. This paper presents the design, architecture and implementation structure of an adaptive system for monitoring the health and well-being of the elderly. The system was designed following best practices of the Human-Centred Design approach involving representative end-users from the early stages.


Author(s):  
Ali Arazeem Abdullahi ◽  
Anathi Ntozini ◽  
Rotimi Oguntayo

The psychological wellbeing of the elderly has become an important global health issue. This study investigated the socio-contextual factors moderating some dimensions of psychological well-being (self-acceptance, purpose in life, environmental mastery and autonomy) among 301 selected aged in South Africa. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were deployed to select the respondents (93 males and 208 females) in Buffalo city, South Africa. A questionnaire pack which included the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale (RPWBS) and the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) were utilised. The study found a significant relationship between physical activity and psychological wellbeing of the elderly. However, ethnicity could moderate the relationship between physical activity and the dimensions of psychological wellbeing. Recreational activities, particularly in Black communities, must be improved to encourage participation in physical exercise.


Author(s):  
Glynn A. Leyshon

SUMMARY ABSTACTIn this book, comprised of 28 papers presented at the 1984 Olympic Congress, the research is divided somewhat arbitrarily into four categories including the sociological, physiological, psychological and program areas. The range of approaches is wide and interesting, and the research comes from seven different countries although the U.S. is predominant. The term ‘sport’ in the title is not adequately reflected in the body of the material as virtually all the research cited deals with physical activity for the aged not sports; where sport is the purview, it deals with the study of young not old people.Attitudes toward activity in the elderly, the benefits of activity to female elderly, and the effect of activity on independent living are among the more significant papers included. The questions posed for the sport scientist in the opening paper and the admission of its writer (the editor) to the eclectic nature of the research included in the book are the key to understanding and appreciating its contents.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zofia Ignasiak ◽  
Anna Sebastjan ◽  
Teresa Sławińska ◽  
Anna Skrzek ◽  
Wojciech Czarny ◽  
...  

Abstract Background It’s really important to measure the actual functional physical fitness of elderly independent living persons from different environments to know the level and rate of decrease may inform about the threat of loss of functional independence, hence the need to monitor and assess the senior’s motor realm and adapt to it the appropriate programs and treatments in the care for the elderly person. Methods The study involved 5367 people (mean age 69,63 ± 7,06), including 4164 women (mean age 69,55 ± 7,11) and 1203 men (mean age 69,91 ± 6,86) aged 60 to 93 years old. We have measured basic anthropometric features and physical fitness (by using Senior Fitness Test). Results The average values in individual SFT tests significantly decrease along with age. After age of 80 and 85 there were no sex differences in SFT. The largest deficits concern the dynamic balance and the decrease reaches 69% in men and 62% in women A significantly higher rate of decline in aerobic capacity concerns men (43%) than women (36.9%). A clearly lower rate of loss occurs in the muscular strength of the lower and upper body and does not exceed 30%. Conclusions The results are of great clinical importance for the development of effective prevention and gerontological education programs in terms of promoting active lifestyle and successful ageing, at the same time limiting the economic consequences of treatment and hospitalisation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 361-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. MILEO ◽  
D. MERICO ◽  
R. BISIANI

AbstractIn recent years there has been a growing interest in solutions for the delivery of clinical care for the elderly because of the large increase in aging population. Monitoring a patient in his home environment is necessary to ensure continuity of care in home settings, but, to be useful, this activity must not be too invasive for patients and a burden for caregivers. We prototyped a system called Secure and INDependent lIving (SINDI), focused on (a) collecting a limited amount of data about the person and the environment through Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), and (b) inferring from these data enough information to support caregivers in understanding patients' well-being and in predicting possible evolutions of their health. Our hierarchical logic-based model of health combines data from different sources, sensor data, tests results, common-sense knowledge and patient's clinical profile at the lower level, and correlation rules between health conditions across upper levels. The logical formalization and the reasoning process are based on Answer Set Programming. The expressive power of this logic programming paradigm makes it possible to reason about health evolution even when the available information is incomplete and potentially incoherent, while declarativity simplifies rules specification by caregivers and allows automatic encoding of knowledge. This paper describes how these issues have been targeted in the application scenario of the SINDI system.


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