scholarly journals Usability of Smartbands by the Elderly Population in the Context of Ambient Assisted Living Applications

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 1617
Author(s):  
Luís Correia ◽  
Daniel Fuentes ◽  
José Ribeiro ◽  
Nuno Costa ◽  
Arsénio Reis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Unusual Event ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Socially Isolated

Nowadays, the Portuguese population is aging at a fast pace. The situation is more severe in the interior regions of the country, where the rural areas have few people and have been constantly losing population; these are mostly elderly who, in some cases, live socially isolated. They are also often deprived of some types of social, health and technological services. One of the current challenges with respect to the elderly is that of improving the quality of life for those who still have some autonomy and live in their own residences so that they may continue living autonomously, while receiving the assistance of some exterior monitoring and supporting services. The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm demonstrates great potential for creating technological solutions in this area as it aims to seamlessly integrate information technology with the daily lives of people. In this context, it is necessary to develop services that monitor the activity and health of the elderly in real time and alert caregivers or other family members in the case of an unusual event or behaviour. It is crucial that the technological system is able to collect data in a nonintrusive manner and without requiring much interaction with the elderly. Smartband devices are very good candidates for this purpose and, therefore, this work proposes assessing the level of acceptance of the usage of a smartbands by senior users in their daily activities. By using the definition of an architecture and the development of a prototype, it was possible to test the level of acceptance of smartbands by a sample of the elderly population—with surprising results from both the elderly and the caregivers—which constitutes an important contribution to the research field of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). The evaluation showed that most users did not feel that the smartband was intrusive to their daily tasks and even considered using it in the future, while caregivers considered that the platform was very intuitive.

scholarly journals IndoorCare: Low-Cost Elderly Activity Monitoring System through Image Processing

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (18) ◽  
pp. 6051
Author(s):  
Daniel Fuentes ◽  
Luís Correia ◽  
Nuno Costa ◽  
Arsénio Reis ◽  
José Ribeiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Assisted Living ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Socially Excluded

The Portuguese population is aging at an increasing rate, which introduces new problems, particularly in rural areas, where the population is small and widely spread throughout the territory. These people, mostly elderly, have low income and are often isolated and socially excluded. This work researches and proposes an affordable Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)-based solution to monitor the activities of elderly individuals, inside their homes, in a pervasive and non-intrusive way, while preserving their privacy. The solution uses a set of low-cost IoT sensor devices, computer vision algorithms and reasoning rules, to acquire data and recognize the activities performed by a subject inside a home. A conceptual architecture and a functional prototype were developed, the prototype being successfully tested in an environment similar to a real case scenario. The system and the underlying concept can be used as a building block for remote and distributed elderly care services, in which the elderly live autonomously in their homes, but have the attention of a caregiver when needed.

scholarly journals Privacy and Data Protection towards Elderly Healthcare

2015 ◽  
pp. 682-698
Author(s):  
Ângelo Costa ◽  
Francisco Andrade ◽  
Paulo Novais
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Elderly Healthcare ◽  
Living Area

Developed societies are registering a dramatic change in terms of population evolution, the most important fact being the ageing population. An alarming fact is that the birth-rate is dropping very fast, inverting the ageing pyramid that used to have a higher incidence on the young population, now having a higher incidence in the older population. In the quest to provide answers to some problems the elderly population has, applications and projects arise from the Ambient Assisted Living area, providing services that help the user in his daily life, providing the needed help and trying to be as non-invasive as possible. The fact is that these systems operate optimally by using information about the user, assisting him according to his preferences. The data gathered for such events is highly personal and sensitive. This can cause a loss of privacy and affect personal data. In this chapter, the authors present an Ambient Assisted Living project towards assistance to an elderly population. The problems and possible solutions in the legal area towards loss of privacy and personal data and information use is also covered.

scholarly journals Privacy and Data Protection towards Elderly Healthcare

2013 ◽  
pp. 330-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ângelo Costa ◽  
Francisco Andrade ◽  
Paulo Novais
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Elderly Healthcare ◽  
Living Area

Developed societies are registering a dramatic change in terms of population evolution, the most important fact being the ageing population. An alarming fact is that the birth-rate is dropping very fast, inverting the ageing pyramid that used to have a higher incidence on the young population, now having a higher incidence in the older population. In the quest to provide answers to some problems the elderly population has, applications and projects arise from the Ambient Assisted Living area, providing services that help the user in his daily life, providing the needed help and trying to be as non-invasive as possible. The fact is that these systems operate optimally by using information about the user, assisting him according to his preferences. The data gathered for such events is highly personal and sensitive. This can cause a loss of privacy and affect personal data. In this chapter, the authors present an Ambient Assisted Living project towards assistance to an elderly population. The problems and possible solutions in the legal area towards loss of privacy and personal data and information use is also covered.

scholarly journals Factors Associated with Happiness among Malaysian Elderly

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 3831
Author(s):  
Shamsul Azhar Shah ◽  
Nazarudin Safian ◽  
Saharuddin Ahmad ◽  
Wan Abdul Hannan Wan Ibadullah ◽  
Zulkefley bin Mohammad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Support ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Handgrip Strength ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Evaluation Study ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

Happiness is an essential component to experience healthy ageing. Hence, understanding the factors that contribute to happiness is important. This study aimed to determine the factors associated with happiness among the elderly population in Malaysia. In this study, 1204 respondents were recruited from urban and rural areas in Selangor. A face-to-face interview was conducted using the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study questionnaire. The inclusion criteria include Malaysians who are 60-years old and above and can converse in the Malaysian language. Those who encounter less than seven scores for the Abbreviated Mental Test were excluded from the study. Among the 1204 respondents, 953 (79.2%) were happy. Sociodemographic characteristics showed that being a men, age of 60 to 74 years, and living in urban areas were significantly associated with happiness. A logistic regression model showed that locality (aOR 1.61), income category (Bottom 40% aOR 0.49; Middle-class group 40% aOR 1.40), social engagement (active aOR 1.77; less active aOR 1.25), receiving emotional support (aOR 2.11) and handgrip strength (aOR 1.02) were significantly associated with happiness. Thus, ensuring the elderly population in receiving emotional support and active social engagement among them can enhance their happiness level.

scholarly journals Quality of life of the elderly population during the virus Covid-19 pandemic with special reference to agriculturists

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 1155-1167
Author(s):  
Pavle Radanov ◽  
Ivana Lešević ◽  
Pavle Brzaković ◽  
Dragan Pajić
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
The Republic

In the Republic of Serbia, on March 15 th , 2020 Government decided to declare a state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the measures was a movement ban for people over 65 in urban areas and those over 70 in rural areas. This research should indicate how people over 65 in urban areas have endured this situation, especially in relation to the same population in rural areas, as well as implications of the movement ban on the quality of life of the elderly population. Special importance is given to the rural population engaged in agriculture. A tool of data collection in this research was anonymous survey. Respondents' answers were statistically processed, which led to clear conclusions about the large negative consequences for the elderly population, including the agricultural activities in rural areas. Covid-19 is still present, which opens further questions related to the quality of life of the elderly population, if necessity for similar measures recurs in the future.

A Conceptual Framework for the Design and Development of AAL Services

2013 ◽  
pp. 568-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Queirós ◽  
Joaquim Alvarelhão ◽  
Anabela G. Silva ◽  
António Teixeira ◽  
Nelson Pacheco da Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
International Classification Of Functioning ◽  
Design And Development ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Semantic Framework ◽  
Research Investment ◽  
Strong Focus

A digital environment with a pervasive and unobtrusive intelligence able to proactively support elderly people in their daily lives, enabling them to live independently for longer, and reducing the need for long term care is the fundamental idea of the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). After considerable research investment, there is a good understanding of the domain problem. However, the need to broaden the scope of problems being addressed is undeniable. Ecological approaches for design and development of AAL services are required in order to reinforce a strong focus on people. The chapter presents a comprehensive model based on the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) to characterize users, theirs contexts, activities, and participation, and to structure a semantic framework for AAL services.

Designing a Compact Wireless Network Based Device-Free Passive Localisation System for Indoor Environments

2018 ◽  
pp. 1424-1439
Author(s):  
Philip Vance ◽  
Girijesh Prasad ◽  
Jim Harkin ◽  
Kevin Curran
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
Design Procedure ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Indoor Environments ◽  
Signal Processing Technique ◽  
Minimum Number ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Device Free

Determining the location of individuals within indoor locations can be useful in various scenarios including security, gaming and ambient assisted living for the elderly. Healthcare services globally are seeking to allow people to stay in their familiar home environments longer due to the multitude of benefits associated with living in non-clinical environments and technologies to determine an individual's movements are key to ensuring that home emergencies are detected through lack of movement can be responded to promptly. This paper proposes a device-free localisation (DFL) system which would enable the individual to proceed with normal daily activities without the concern of having to wear a traceable device. The principle behind this is that the human body absorbs/reflects the radio signal being transmitted from a transmitter to one or more receiving stations. The proposed system design procedure facilitates the use of a minimum number of wireless nodes with the help of a principle component analysis (PCA) based intelligent signal processing technique. Results demonstrate that human detection and tracking are possible to within 1m resolution with a minimal hardware infrastructure.

scholarly journals Ambient Assisted Living: A Research on Human Activity Recognition and Vital Health Sign Monitoring using Deep Learning Approaches

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6S4) ◽  
pp. 531-540
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Activity Recognition ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Assisted Living ◽  
Independent Living ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Human Activity Recognition ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Learning Approaches

The rise in life expectancy rate and dwindled birth rate in new age society has led to the phenomenon of population ageing which is being witnessed across the world from past few decades. India is also a part of this demographic transition which will have the direct impact on the societal and economic conditions of the country. In order to effectively deal with the prevailing phenomenon, stakeholders involved are coming up with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based ecosystem to address the needs of elderly people such as independent living, activity recognition, vital health sign monitoring, prevention from social isolation etc. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is one such ecosystem which is capable of providing safe and secured living environment for the elderly and disabled people. In this paper we will focus on reviewing the sensor based Human Activity Recognition (HAR) and Vital Health Sign Monitoring (VHSM) which is applicable for AAL environments. At first we generally describe the AAL environment. Next we present brief insights into sensor modalities and different deep learning architectures. Later, we survey the existing literature for HAR and VHSM based on sensor modality and deep learning approach used.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Situation of Abuse Suffered Outside the Institution Older People in the Context of Residential Care

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-168
Author(s):  
Carmelo Gómez Martínez ◽  
Elena Carrasco Martínez ◽  
Inmaculada Martínez Escámez ◽  
Pedro Andreo Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Type Of Abuse ◽  
Geographical Scope

Within the elderly population, the specific circumstances that some of the elderly find themselves due to certain socio-cultural factors make them more likely to be abused while residing in assisted living residences, due to the facts that the abuse is coming from the organisation it is unlikely to be reported, or brought to the attention of others, making it difficult to detect and, as a result, an issue not often discussed. We intend to investigate these possibilities; however, due to lack of information on this subject, we aim to address this issue by investigating the number of elderly people living in nursing homes who have suffered abuse due to agents outside of the organisation, such as the family, other residents and Friends. A brief questionnaire was created on an Excel Spreadsheet for the collection of data for this study, these questionnaires where then passed on the social workers of 4 assisted living residences, in the geographical scope of the Murcia region. The data collected correspond to the time period between January and December 2013. The results lead us to believe that the principal risk factors associated with this type of abuse is being a woman, a widow and with and age of about 80 years. Psychological abuse from family members was the most frequently reported type of abuse in the study.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document