Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Jan 05, 2022)
Date Submitted: Dec 21, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Feasibility and Efficacy of Life Logging System Using TouchCare Application for Older Adults Living Alone: Pilot Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
With the number of older people living alone continuously rising, health-monitoring systems using information and communication technology (ICT) have been developed to manage their health issues. Life logging, a type of ICT, has been adapted to manage and monitor health status of the elderly. However, its feasibility and efficacy remain unclear.
Objective:
This study aimed to examine the feasibility of a life logging system combined with human body communication technology and its effect on the physical and psychological status of older adults living alone.
Methods:
The life logging system, which consisted of a wearable watch, touchpad sensors, TouchCare application, and context-aware artificial intelligence, was developed by DNX Co. Ltd and used by the participants for 5 months. Out of the 111 selected participants, 91 replied to the satisfaction survey, and 22 participated in further investigation regarding their physical and psychological status. Finally, health assessment and sensor data from 14 participants (mean age=77.4; SD=3.8) were analyzed to compare their health status and health-related behaviors before and after use of the system.
Results:
Out of the 91 participants who took the survey, 51.6% were satisfied with the system. Nutritional status (pre-intervention (10.6± 2.0) vs. post-intervention (11.8± 1.9), P=0.04) and fall efficacy (pre-intervention (89.2± 15.3) vs. post-intervention (99.9± 0.5), P=0.001) significantly improved after use of the system. Chronic pain (pre-intervention (4.8± 2.5) vs. post-intervention (4.4± 3.7), P=0.78) and depressive symptoms (pre-intervention (5.7± 3.9) vs. post-intervention (5.4± 3.1), P=0.60) reduced, while cognitive function (pre-intervention (4.1± 1.4) vs. post-intervention (4.6± 1.1), P=0.15) and physical performance related to walking improved (pre-intervention (3.9± 0.2) vs. post-intervention (4.0± 0), P=0.35), but were not significant. Behaviors related to physical activity and gait improved after use of the system; touch counts of refrigerator and microwave also increased with a decrease in night touch counts.
Conclusions:
The life logging system was acceptable to older people living alone, and it efficiently managed their daily living while promoting their health-related behaviors. Further experimental studies are required to verify the effectiveness of the system, and to develop the system which meet the individualized needs of older people living alone.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.