Designing Medical Devices for Older Adults

2001 ◽  
pp. 227-244
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Medical Devices

scholarly journals What Features and Functions Are Desired in Telemedical Services Targeted at Polish Older Adults Delivered by Wearable Medical Devices?—Pre-COVID-19 Flashback

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (18) ◽  
pp. 5181
Author(s):  
Eliasz Kańtoch ◽  
Anna Kańtoch
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Medical Devices ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Telemedicine Service ◽  
Desirable Feature ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Wearable Medical ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Adult Volunteers

The emerging wearable medical devices open up new opportunities for the provision of health services and promise to accelerate the development of novel telemedical services. The main objective of this study was to investigate the desirable features and applications of telemedical services for the Polish older adults delivered by wearable medical devices. The questionnaire study was conducted among 146 adult volunteers in two cohorts (C.1: <65 years vs. C.2: ≥65 years). The analysis was based on qualitative research and descriptive statistics. Comparisons were performed by Pearson’s chi-squared test. The questionnaire, which was divided into three parts (1-socio-demographic data, needs, and behaviors; 2-health status; 3-telemedicine service awareness and device concept study), consisted of 37 open, semi-open, or closed questions. Two cohorts were analyzed (C.1: n = 77; mean age = 32 vs. C.2: n = 69; mean age = 74). The performed survey showed that the majority of respondents were unaware of the telemedical services (56.8%). A total of 62.3% of C.1 and 34.8% of C.2 declared their understanding of telemedical services. The 10.3% of correct explanations regarding telemedical service were found among all study participants. The most desirable feature was the detection of life-threatening and health-threatening situations (65.2% vs. 66.2%). The findings suggest a lack of awareness of telemedical services and the opportunities offered by wearable telemedical devices.

scholarly journals Older Adults and Management of Medical Devices in the Home: Five Requirements for Appropriate Use

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 278-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara C. Keller ◽  
Ayse P. Gurses ◽  
Nicole Werner ◽  
Dawn Hohl ◽  
Ashley Hughes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Medical Devices ◽  
Appropriate Use

Cognitive control constrains memory attributions

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen M. Kelley ◽  
Larry L. Jacoby
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Cognitive Control

Abstract Cognitive control constrains retrieval processing and so restricts what comes to mind as input to the attribution system. We review evidence that older adults, patients with Alzheimer's disease, and people with traumatic brain injury exert less cognitive control during retrieval, and so are susceptible to memory misattributions in the form of dramatic levels of false remembering.

Ultrastructural changes in murine lymphoma cells exposed to ultraviolet-A radiation

1991 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 104-105
Author(s):  
Delma P. Thomas ◽  
Dianne E. Godar
Keyword(s):  
Medical Devices ◽  
Blood Cells ◽  
White Blood Cells ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Ultrastructural Changes ◽  
Ultraviolet A ◽  
Uv Spectrum ◽  
Lymphoma Cells ◽  
Murine Lymphoma ◽  
Transmission Electron

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) from all three waveband regions of the UV spectrum, UVA (320-400 nm), UVB (290-320 nm), and UVC (200-290 nm), can be emitted by some medical devices and consumer products. Sunlamps can expose the blood to a considerable amount of UVR, particularly UVA and/or UVB. The percent transmission of each waveband through the epidermis to the dermis, which contains blood, increases in the order of increasing wavelength: UVC (10%) < UVB (20%) < UVA (30%). To investigate the effects of UVR on white blood cells, we chose transmission electron microscopy to examine the ultrastructure changes in L5178Y-R murine lymphoma cells.

Bacterial biofilm behavior in water-supply lines of dental units

1992 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 882-883
Author(s):  
B.D. Tall ◽  
K.S. George ◽  
R. T. Gray ◽  
H.N. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Medical Devices ◽  
Biofilm Formation ◽  
Bacterial Biofilm

Studies of bacterial behavior in many environments have shown that most organisms attach to surfaces, forming communities of microcolonies called biofilms. In contaminated medical devices, biofilms may serve both as reservoirs and as inocula for the initiation of infections. Recently, there has been much concern about the potential of dental units to transmit infections. Because the mechanisms of biofilm formation are ill-defined, we investigated the behavior and formation of a biofilm associated with tubing leading to the water syringe of a dental unit over a period of 1 month.

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

Effects of Aging on the Subcortical Encoding of Stop Consonants

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-403
Author(s):  
Dania Rishiq ◽  
Ashley Harkrider ◽  
Cary Springer ◽  
Mark Hedrick
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Auditory Brainstem ◽  
Auditory Brainstem Responses ◽  
Aging Effects ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Second Formant ◽  
Effects Of Aging

Purpose The main purpose of this study was to evaluate aging effects on the predominantly subcortical (brainstem) encoding of the second-formant frequency transition, an essential acoustic cue for perceiving place of articulation. Method Synthetic consonant–vowel syllables varying in second-formant onset frequency (i.e., /ba/, /da/, and /ga/ stimuli) were used to elicit speech-evoked auditory brainstem responses (speech-ABRs) in 16 young adults ( M age = 21 years) and 11 older adults ( M age = 59 years). Repeated-measures mixed-model analyses of variance were performed on the latencies and amplitudes of the speech-ABR peaks. Fixed factors were phoneme (repeated measures on three levels: /b/ vs. /d/ vs. /g/) and age (two levels: young vs. older). Results Speech-ABR differences were observed between the two groups (young vs. older adults). Specifically, older listeners showed generalized amplitude reductions for onset and major peaks. Significant Phoneme × Group interactions were not observed. Conclusions Results showed aging effects in speech-ABR amplitudes that may reflect diminished subcortical encoding of consonants in older listeners. These aging effects were not phoneme dependent as observed using the statistical methods of this study.

Partner-Specific Communication Deficits in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Eun Jin Paek ◽  
Si On Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Referential Expressions

Purpose Speakers adjust referential expressions to the listeners' knowledge while communicating, a phenomenon called “audience design.” While individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show difficulties in discourse production, it is unclear whether they exhibit preserved partner-specific audience design. The current study examined if individuals with AD demonstrate partner-specific audience design skills. Method Ten adults with mild-to-moderate AD and 12 healthy older adults performed a referential communication task with two experimenters (E1 and E2). At first, E1 and participants completed an image-sorting task, allowing them to establish shared labels. Then, during testing, both experimenters were present in the room, and participants described images to either E1 or E2 (randomly alternating). Analyses focused on the number of words participants used to describe each image and whether they reused shared labels. Results During testing, participants in both groups produced shorter descriptions when describing familiar images versus new images, demonstrating their ability to learn novel knowledge. When they described familiar images, healthy older adults modified their expressions depending on the current partner's knowledge, producing shorter expressions and more established labels for the knowledgeable partner (E1) versus the naïve partner (E2), but individuals with AD were less likely to do so. Conclusions The current study revealed that both individuals with AD and the control participants were able to acquire novel knowledge, but individuals with AD tended not to flexibly adjust expressions depending on the partner's knowledge state. Conversational inefficiency and difficulties observed in AD may, in part, stem from disrupted audience design skills.

The Impact of Subjective and Objective Hearing Loss on Cognition and Memory in Older Adults

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Rogalski ◽  
Amy Rominger
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Cognitive Testing ◽  
Professional Collaboration ◽  
Cognitive Screening ◽  
Speech Language Pathologist ◽  
Text Passage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Audiologic Evaluation

For this exploratory cross-disciplinary study, a speech-language pathologist and an audiologist collaborated to investigate the effects of objective and subjective hearing loss on cognition and memory in 11 older adults without hearing loss (OAs), 6 older adults with unaided hearing loss (HLOAs), and 16 young adults (YAs). All participants received cognitive testing and a complete audiologic evaluation including a subjective questionnaire about perceived hearing difficulty. Memory testing involved listening to or reading aloud a text passage then verbally recalling the information. Key findings revealed that objective hearing loss and subjective hearing loss were correlated and both were associated with a cognitive screening test. Potential clinical implications are discussed and include a need for more cross-professional collaboration in assessing older adults with hearing loss.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document